Only three weeks after his spectacular Belmont Stakes performance, Secretariat was back in action in a richly endowed invitational at Arlington – as Steve Dennis recalls in the latest instalment of his popular series
After six hard races in an intense three-month span, any horse, any athlete, would be entitled to a break. Six races was as many as 2022 US Horse of the Year Flightline managed in his entire life, which is an illustration of the past’s status as a foreign country rather than any criticism of either regime. Yet Secretariat, Triple Crown winner, all-American hero, now had a vast public following who wanted more of Big Red – and what the public wants, it usually gets.
The public gets what the public wants
In the wake of Secretariat’s mind-bending victory in the Belmont, the plan originally mooted by owner Penny Chenery and trainer Lucien Laurin involved letting the colt down for a few weeks before bringing him back to race at Saratoga in high summer, targeting the Jim Dandy and the Travers.
Such was the nation’s fervour for the nation’s new sweetheart, however, such the desire to keep Secretariat front and centre, that plans were changed and various alternatives considered.
Not every request was accepted – Sonny and Cher wanted Secretariat to appear on stage with them, and a Las Vegas casino offered $25,000 if he would appear twice-daily at its nightclub, like a long-faced, hoarse-voiced Sinatra – but there were other possibilities more in keeping with Big Red’s day job.
Aside from his trip to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby, Secretariat had exclusively worked the east-coast beat, so when Arlington Park in Chicago offered to organise a match-race worth $125,000 three weeks after the Belmont, it was an opportunity to spread the love at least as far as Illinois and to be handsomely paid at the same time. After all, the Belmont had been worth ‘only’ $90,000 to the winner.
The intention was for Secretariat to take on Linda’s Chief, who had finished runner-up to the nonpareil in the Sanford at Saratoga the previous year, and filled the same spot behind Sham in the Santa Anita Derby before running up a streak in stakes races.
Trouble was, trainer Al Scotti didn’t want to ship all the way to Illinois to get beat by Secretariat, and he ruled out his stable star.
The usual suspects
So the racing office at Arlington worked the phones and rounded up some usual suspects for what was to be known as the Arlington Invitational, run over a mile-eighth with $75,000 for the winner. Derby and Preakness third Our Native and Belmont third My Gallant answered the call, and while their records looked good on paper, you didn’t need to be Woodward or Bernstein to discover the truth.
Our Native had finished 10½ lengths behind Secretariat in both races, while no-one who can count up to 31 needs reminding how far My Gallant was beaten at Belmont Park. A quartet was formed by the addition of Blue Chip Dan, who had never won a stakes and was strictly there for the Old Style beer.
Secretariat was ready for a race, his supernatural exertions at Belmont Park having taken little out of him. “I didn’t really know how I could give him a rest,” said Laurin. “He’s so strong and full of energy that if I don’t run him he’s going to hurt himself in his stall.”
Chicago was ready for Secretariat, with Mayor Daley announcing by proclamation that June 30 was to be known as Secretariat Day in the Windy City, and 41,223 people crammed into Arlington Park to share that day with their idol.
In a bid to keep things simple only win bets were permitted, with Secretariat available at 1-20, odds attractive only to dime collectors ($2 was the minimum bet) and those who wanted to buy themselves a ticket for a memento of the great day. The other three horses were coupled as a single wagering entry at 6-1, and business there wasn’t booming.
As it transpired, the most troublesome part of the exercise for Secretariat had been the flight from New York, when bad weather had meant a bumpy flight and a diversion to a different airport. “I was a lot more nervous than he was,” Laurin told the press, although no-one asked the same question of Big Red.
No need for nerves
For while strange things can happen between gate and wire there was no need for nerves in the race, although Secretariat made his habitual tardy entrance, losing three or four lengths at the break before making them up again with just a few of those long, powerful strides. He was in front after a furlong, three lengths clear after a first quarter run in a leisurely 24⅘s, and kept the same margin under a motionless Ron Turcotte until opening up around the home turn.
Turcotte took a long, lingering, goodbye glance over his left shoulder at the top of the lane and let the big horse roll down the centre of the track, and Secretariat thrilled his fanbase by clearing away under a hand-ride to score by nine lengths, stopping the clock – despite twelving his way through the first half-mile – in 1:47 flat, just one-fifth of a second outside the track record held by the great Damascus.
It was not so much a race as a lavishly paid breeze, a three-inch putt, a slam dunk, a gentle volley into an open court. But great sporting prowess is still great sporting prowess even when it brushes up against formality, and Chenery and Laurin gamely hammed it up for the TV cameras.
“That was a great race, they really gave him a race,” said Chenery, mixing diplomacy and inaccuracy in equal measures.
‘He could’ve broken the record’
Turcotte offered a more phlegmatic take on the performance, noting that Secretariat had probably run further than the mile-eighth as he had stayed well clear of the fence throughout.
“I kept him 12 feet off the rail all the way,” he said. “He could’ve broken the record if I’d wanted.”
But the job was done, the bank balance supplemented, the public delighted, the legend embellished, the boxes ticked. Secretariat Day had served its purpose to widespread satisfaction, and now Secretariat would finally be allowed to put his four feet up and take a summer holiday.
Even tremendous machines need to be switched off now and again.
• Visit the dedicated Secretariat website at secretariat.com
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