Patricia McQueen’s tireless pursuit of Secretariat’s progeny unearthed a new name last year in the shape of a 33-year-old retired former teaser at Bridlewood Farm in Florida.
When it comes to Secretariat’s last surviving offspring, surprises are magical. In late 2018, I was surprised to learn of Trusted Company, the stallion’s robust daughter whose 34th birthday is coming up on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
I figured that was it for surprises, but then last fall I learned of Maritime Traveler. He is living happily at Bridlewood Farm in Florida, and the memories came flooding back. After all, I had photographed him on a foggy-turned-sunny morning at Bridlewood as a three-year-old in training in 1993. It’s hard to believe he escaped my radar for all those years.
Credit the farm’s administrative assistant Christina Clary, who joined Bridlewood last August, for his recent coming out party. She had read a story about the last two Secretariats (then Trusted Company and Border Run, who has since passed away), and recalled seeing Secretariat in the pedigree of a horse at the farm.
She investigated, and sure enough, their pensioned stallion – who spent most of his life as a valued teaser – is a son of the Triple Crown winner. Now, at age 33, just he and Trusted Company are known to remain.
A last reminder
Maritime Traveler is also a last reminder of the original Bridlewood Farm, developed by Arthur Appleton in 1976. The Chicago native headed Appleton Electric, a company founded by his father.
The younger Appleton was an inventor who held more than 150 patents on different types of electrical systems and switch boxes. He entered the Thoroughbred industry in 1969, and founded Bridlewood with 500 acres at the beginning.
He was routinely among the top American breeders, and earned several leading owner and breeder honors in Florida. Under his guidance, the farm bred more than 100 stakes winners, including Florida champions Jolie’s Halo, David Junior, Forbidden Apple, Wild Event and Southern Image.
Appleton and his wife Martha loved horses, recalled Bridlewood’s longtime general manager George Isaacs, who has been on the job since 1996 (after a short earlier stint as stallion manager).
The only thing Appleton loved as much as horses was art. An avid collector, in 1987 he and his sister Edith-Marie opened the Appleton Museum of Art at the College of Central Florida in Ocala.
Last opportunities
Isaacs and Appleton would get together every summer and study the yearling catalogues, looking for good prospects. “He would always try to buy the best horses he could afford,” said Isaacs. The 1991 sales provided the last opportunities to buy yearling sons and daughters of Secretariat, as the stallion’s last crop was born in 1990.
Several such yearlings were offered, and the highest price of all was paid for Sakiyah, who brought $30
0,000 at Saratoga; the filly would be stakes-placed. Three others brought more than $200,000 each at Keeneland July Selected Yearling sale; none of them accomplished anything on the racetrack.
At the Keeneland September yearling sale, Appleton picked up not one, but two Secretariats. He paid $110,000 for a bay filly out of stakes winner by Lantana Lady, by Vice Regent.
Named Lady Secretary, she raced only three times for Appleton, all at Pimlico in May 1994, with one win and a second. Retired to the Bridlewood broodmare band, she produced her first six foals for Appleton before she was sold.
For just $55,000, the owner also took home a flashy chestnut colt with an excellent family. Bred in Ontario by the renowned Windfields Farm, the youngster’s dam was the Northern Dancer mare Oceana, a full-sister to champions Northernette and Storm Bird. When he arrived on May 15, 1990, he was one of the last Secretariats ever born.
Not meant for racing
Named Maritime Traveler, the colt raced five times, all in maiden special weights at Woodbine. Trained for Appleton by Emile Allain, he made his debut on Sept. 17, 1992, finishing last of 11 at seven furlongs on the dirt.
Tried on the grass for his second start less than two weeks later, he made a mild rally but still could finish only fourth. Another poor effort on the dirt sent him to the sidelines until the following May. A new year didn’t help; he was unplaced in two more starts before calling it a career. He earned just $1,572 in five starts.
With that record, there was no future for Maritime Traveler as a breeding stallion, but Appleton brought the colt home to Bridlewood with a new assignment in mind. Breeding farms require the services of a teaser – a stallion whose only purpose is to help determine when mares are ready to breed.
For many years, Bridlewood had two teasers. One, a son of In Reality nicknamed Jimmy, worked the breeding shed in the stallion complex; the farm’s policy was to have a teaser ready to ‘jump’ maiden mares or non-resident mares.
The teaser wears a shield so he cannot actually breed the mare; the practice is designed to familiarize the mare to being mounted, to which she may not react well if she is new to the covering barn.
Anyway, that was Jimmy’s role, while Maritime Traveler spent his days admiring the mares in the broodmare section of the farm.
“It was a nice setup for a teaser,” said Isaacs of the stallion’s working life. His paddock was built next to the barren and maiden mare paddock.
Over the fence
“He was quietly teasing them over the fence all the time, and the mares got used to having a male horse around,” added Isaacs. “It’s good science and good mare management.”
The manager has seen his share of bad behavior at other farms with teasers who are either so vocal that they scare the mares, or they just want to jump the mares even though they are just teasing through the stall door.
However, Isaacs has nothing but good things to say about Maritime Traveler. “He was such an easy horse with the mares,” he said, explaining that the handler could have held him with nothing more than a piece of baling twine.
There was no need for a chain over his nose or through his mouth. “Because of that, he was good at his job, and the mares showed to him properly.”
When Jimmy passed away at least a decade ago, Maritime Traveler had to serve double duty; after all, good teasers are hard to find.
“He transitioned well to the additional task in the breeding shed, because he wasn’t overly aggressive,” reported Isaacs. “That’s not a bad thing with a maiden mare. He’s such a laid-back kind of horse, but was efficient at what he did. That in my mind made him a great teaser because he wasn’t crazy. Most teasers are just way overcharged.”
The stallion continued on the job until about four or five years ago. “He had no zest to jump up anymore,” noted Isaacs.
A nice retirement
Because he had earned his keep so admirably, he deserved a nice retirement. Now, Maritime Traveler enjoys a paddock in the stallion complex, munching the grass at his leisure and enjoying the Florida sunshine.
“He’s literally in one of the nicest paddocks on the farm, next to 100 acres of woods with deer, wild turkeys and all kinds of wildlife,” said Isaacs. “On any given day, I can look down there towards his paddock and see him and the wild turkeys nearby. It’s such a pretty sight.”
While Maritime Traveler never sired any registered foals, there’s a good chance that he had a few offspring over the years. A big breeding farm such as Bridlewood, which in the past has had as many as 200 mares on the property, will inevitably have to use the services of a nurse mare.
“Part of your typical nurse mare contract is that you have to return her in-foal, because that’s how they perpetuate the nurse mare cycle,” said Isaacs. Therefore, the teasers would typically breed the nurse mares and it’s likely that Secretariat’s son was no exception.
After Appleton died on January 15, 2008, the manager spent the next five years looking for new owners who would preserve the legacy of Bridlewood. He finally found them in 2013, when John and Leslie Malone took over the property, which now encompasses more than 2,200 acres.
Given Maritime Traveler’s current good health, Isaacs hopes to be looking at the old fellow for a long time in his picturesque patch of that acreage.
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