Secretariat Wins Triple Crown: A Racehorse Legend Is Born

Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by thirty-one lengths. On June 9, 1973, the three-year-old chestnut colt pulled away from the field entering the final turn and kept accelerating, crossing the finish line so far ahead of the nearest competitor that the margin remains the largest in any Triple Crown race in history. His time of 2:24 flat for a mile and a half shattered the Belmont record by more than two seconds. When veterinarians examined his body after his death in 1989, they found a heart nearly three times the normal size: 22 pounds, compared to a typical Thoroughbred’s 7 to 8 pounds. The colt had won the Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, the first horse to break two minutes for the distance, and the Preakness Stakes two weeks later. But entering the Belmont, the Triple Crown had been unclaimed for 25 years, and recent history suggested the mile-and-a-half Belmont distance would expose whatever weaknesses the shorter races had concealed. Four horses had won the Derby and Preakness since 1948 and lost the Belmont. Sham, who had run a strong second in both previous races, was considered a serious threat. Jockey Ron Turcotte let Secretariat run. Rather than rating the horse and conserving energy for a final stretch drive, Turcotte allowed him to set his own pace from the start. Secretariat reached the first quarter mile in 23.4 seconds, the half in 46.4, and continued accelerating through each successive quarter. Sham, who tried to stay with him, collapsed to last place and finished the race as a broken horse who would never run competitively again. CBS announcer Chic Anderson’s call, "He is moving like a tremendous machine," became one of the most replayed lines in sports broadcasting. Secretariat’s Belmont performance is widely regarded as the single greatest race ever run by a Thoroughbred. His sectional times showed the rarest quality in any athlete: he ran each quarter mile faster than the one before it over a distance that exhausts most horses. Penny Chenery, who owned the horse and had resisted pressure to sell him after the Kentucky Derby, called the Belmont the race she wanted people to remember. No one who saw it has forgotten.