as for the whole Secretariat-was he the best ever or just well marketed debate-
I'll just say this.
He was good. real good.
was he one of the best 10 horses ever?
I have no idea. He did beat older which is the biggest test of a 3YO.
he also threw in some subpar porfmances and others like Native Dancer, MOW, and Ribot never had those bad races.
what I do find impressive about Secretariat's is his turf form.
he beat older on turf and did it easily.
you can have the triple crown. beating Sham says nothing about him from a historical perspective.
what leads me to believe that he was one of the greats is that he could run through the triple crown series, run at Saratoga, and then run 2 great races on turf.
thats a tough campaign for a 3YO.
the damn horse ran 21 times before being retired at the age of 3.
Bernardini, a horse who I believe is great, could run until the age of 5 and not run 21 times.
thats my take on it anyway.
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