1973 Preakness (UPDATE: Maryland accepts 1:53.0)
 

DRF has a story up about how MD is looking into retiming the Preakness the year Secretariat won it.

What I found interesting was the video. In the beginning of the video, as they approach the gate, they talk about how Sham was kicked/hammered in the head before the race and lost a couple of teeth. Anyone ever heard that before?

http://www.drf.com/news/secretariats...and-commission

I believe he lost some teeth in the starting gate for the Derby.

The Zapruder film of horse racing....

Independent timers, at the race, caught Secretariat in record time. Penny Chenery is asking Maryland Jockey Club to review it, and give Secretariat the real, record time, in the record books and history.

I hope they do. The horse earned it.

Yes, I recall at the time after the Preakness, hearing that Sham had knocked out a couple baby teeth in the gate at the Derby. Don't recall it being a kick, but hey, it was decades ago.

Secretariat broke Sham's racing heart on the far turn in the Belmont. Sham ran the Derby in record time, too.

that was the one. knocked out two in the derby gate.
they need to officially re-do the preakness tho. everyone know secretariat has that record. why they choose to be so damned obstinate about it i don't know.

Louis Quatorze protest.

Tank's Prospect too. A pretty good but forgotten horse.

My take on the timing error from a past post I made here:

I'm reserving judgment on whether Secretariat was better than Zenyatta until this matter is resolved.

John Edwards liked to talk about "two America's" ... you really did have two Secretariat's.

He was a GREAT, GREAT horse overall ... but also a hot and cold type horse as a 3yo.

The defeats in the Wood, Whitney, and Woodward at age 3 (a sweep Easy Goer accomplished at age 3)

Secretariat also performed moderately in his early season wins.

He came into the Kentucky Derby with Ragozin Sheet figures of 11.00, 6.25, and 12.00 in his 3 Derby preps. Spectacular Bid was running his Derby preps in the 2.50 to 4.50 range and finished his 2yo season supersonic fast. Affirmed was in the 6.50 to 9.25 range for his preps. Slew in the 7.25 to 10.00 range for his preps.

Secretariat, despite being 2yo champion, was not highweight on the mythical Derby Handicap. Also, he almost certainly would not have been the favorite in the Kentucky Derby if he was uncoupled.

A tooth abscess was bothering him -- and almost certainly the reason he was performing below par in his Derby preps. It got treated after the Wood Memorial and his Ragozin figure improved to a 0.75 in the Kentucky Derby.

In the rest of the century -- no one approached Secretariat's Derby Ragozin figure:

Secretariat: 0.75
Spectacular Bid: 1.75
Unbridled: 2.00
Spend A Buck: 2.25
Silver Charm: 3.00

He had a killer Triple Crown series -- and ran some killer races afterwards.

However, he ran five races at age three that weren't up to par with his standard.

Here was BY FAR the best stallion from Secretariat's excellent crop.




He simply couldn't stay. Mr. Prospector had a loose lead at Keeneland in a good overnight ALW race in his first route attempt -- he spit the bit.

He spit the bit again in a slow edition of the Derby Trial.

Much like Elusive Quality -- his best game seemed to be sprinting 6 furlongs at Gulfstream Park. In just his 3rd career start -- he set a 6f track record at GP that stood until Artax broke it in the Breeders Cup Sprint.

Artax--I think was IC's second favorite horse, just BARELY behind the four-legged IC.

Just think, IC could have been here as "Artax". What a funny world we live in....

Speaking of The Bid's 2yr old season, did he not win 3 grade 1 races at 3 different tracks in a 3 week time, while setting a track record that still stands today at 1 1/6?

Yes. 1:41.60 for 8.5 furlongs still stands as Laurel's track record.

He won the race by 8.5 lengths over General Assembly.

Clever Trick (winner of 18 of 29 lifetime starts. Sire of the outstanding horse and sire Phone Trick) finished 3rd beaten more than 20 lengths in that Laurel Futurity.



Tim The Tiger -- a Grade 1 winner that season -- checked home 4th.

Final time of some famous Laurel Futurity winners on dirt:

Spectacular Bid: 1:41.60
Devil's Bag: 1:42.20 (2nd fastest edition ever)
Secretariat: 1:42.80
Honest Pleasure: 1:42.80
Count Fleet: 1:43.40
Riva Ridge: 1:43.40
Tapit: 1:43.80
Affirmed: 1:44.20
Cure The Blues: 1:44.40
Deputy Minister: 1:44.60
Bet Twice: 1:45.00

He hated Randy Bradshaw, I think.

WOW...............YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS AMAZING. I think after The Bid won those 3 grade 1's, he actually ran again that year , I think 2 weeks later and won, Do you know what race it was?

Artax was a freaking beast, and had he not been trained by that incompetent fool, who knows how good he would have been. I still think that horse was at least as good routing as he was sprinting, too.

However, he was not in the same league as IC.

I was a big fan of Old Trieste from that crop too.

I never would have chosen Artax as a screen name here. I'd probably have chosen Rahy or Cees Tizzy.

Thanks, Your knowledge is very impressive, has any other Champion been undefeated from 7 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles? and just curious as to your opinion on where you would rank The Bid with all the greats?

Or maybe Behrens

LOL. Yeah.

Your memory is sometimes pretty amazing.

Hey, check this out..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GpdU...ayer_embedded#

Colin. Man O' War. Personal Ensign, Landaluce. None that had anything close to his body of work.

http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/sho...65&postcount=1

Thanks for the History lesson today, very informative, and interesting, I have to find Native Dancer as a two yr old.

He was 10-for-10 as a 2-year-old and had fast numbers.




It's really way too difficult to rate the best 2-year-olds of all-time.

Some of the great 2yo's like Secretariat and Spectacular Bid weren't good gate horses early on -- and both of them could be had going real short because of immaturity and bad initial gate habits.

Some of the most sensational 2yo's going 5 furlongs and 6 furlongs had trouble staying a mile or further.

Wow, he was a BEAST. was the Derby his only loss?

Yes.

Pretty much every single racehorse today has Native Dancer blood in it.

He sired Raise A Native (sire of both Mr. Prospector and Alydar) and he was the dam sire of Northern Dancer.

Discovery was the dam sire of both Native Dancer and Bold Ruler. Needless to say, Discovery is in pretty much every single pedigree of every single current race horse at least once. Ruffian was extremely in-bred to Discovery. He appeared 3 different times in her up-close pedigree.

The American Derby at Was was worth 4x the purse value of the Travers. I've never even heard of 'Was'!

RAN also sired Exclusive Native (Affirmed/Genuine Risk), Majestic Prince and more.

Trivia:

Who was the last horse that was not a descendant of Native Dancer to win the Kentucky Derby?

Just way off the top of my head, Sunday Silence?

More recent

Giacomo.

I'm not who you asked but I rank the Bid #6 all time...I know a good argument could be made for an even higher ranking but to me the top 9 are very close.

Please let me know who the 5 are, that you rank higher, thanks

Correct. And before that I believe it was Silver Charm.

1. Secretariat
2. Kincsem...always catch hell for this one but check her out!
3. Man O War...despite the fact that I feel he ducked Exterminator.
4. Citation
5. Native Dancer

Kelso, Dr. Fager, and Secretariat are the only three that one could rationally make a case for to rate ahead of Spectacular Bid.

I would put SB #1 and Kelso #2 -- and any list that doesn't include the two of them in the top 5 is not at all well thought out.

Secretariat and Dr. Fager are two that one could justifiably put as high as #1 and as low as maybe 10th or 12th.

If you ran a rabbit at Dr. Fager he wouldn't run up to his par. He also missed some important dances. Secretariat had five uninspiring performances at age 3 -- and he didn't race at age 4. Both horses were incredible on their day -- and both proven on turf (however much you value that)

Kinscem is a hysterically awful selection. She doesn't belong in a top 1,000.

If memory serves...somerfrost ranks both of these horses behind Zenyatta.

That's no real slight to them, however, as he ranks Zenyatta ahead of Affirmed as well.

I have to agree about Secretariat, he was a great horse, but also turned in some poor at three (The Wood, Whitney and Woodward), He did not race at 4, So for me The Bid's complete body of work surpasses Secretariat.

secretariat has a huge following because of his tc, when he was flat out awesome. i have to say that i rate the bid ahead of him tho. 26/30 in three years time, with no loss the last year imo is far better than 16/21-which isn't even an 'a' average! sec lost 1/4 of his races when you look at it in that light. he had an amazing spring. he was an amazing horse, but i don't think he was the best ever. the bid won more races than secretariat even entered. of course that's no more secretariats fault than man o war not facing exterminator would be mow's fault.