Penny Chenery was the owner of the great Secretariat. I ahd the pleasure of being at Belmont Park to see her horse win the Belmont Stakes and thus the Triple Crown.
Mrs. Chenery was at Belmont today to see if the 37-year wait for a Triple Crown would finally end. “It’s a very exclusive club,” she said. Yes, it is. Going into today’s 147th Belmont (the Preakness is the newest of the three, at 140 runnings), that club only had 11 members:
Sir Barton (1919)
Gallant Fox (1930)
Omaha (1935)
War Admiral (1937)
Whirlaway (1941)
Count Fleet (1943)
Assault (1946)
Citation (1948)
Secretariat (1973)
Seattle Slew (1977)
Affirmed (1978)
Well, the “very exclusive club” has a new member this evening.
Congratulations to American Pharoah, the 12th winner of the Triple Crown. Let’s all hope that we don’t have to wait another 37 years for the next member.
You got to see Secretariat win the Belmont? Wow! What an incredible sight that must have been. I was 12 years old, watching it on the tv. I would have given anything to have been there! Horses were my life. :-)
Three Triple Crown winners’ names begin with S (Sir Barton, Secretariat, Seattle Slew), two with A (Assault, Affirmed, American Pharoah), two with W (War Admiral and Whirlaway), two with C (Count Fleet and Citation), and one each with G (Gallant Fox) and O (Omaha.)
The Preakness is actually 2 years older than the Derby.
I saw the race on an old B&W TV and have rewatched it many times on YouTube. What an awesome performance. Secretariat has to be the greatest horse ever.