In the latest of his unmissable series reliving Secretariat’s three-year-old campaign, Steve Dennis recalls how normal service was thrillingly resumed as the legendary colt moved onto the lawn for the penultimate race of his career
That crushing and unnecessary eclipse in the Woodward was probably Secretariat’s lowest point, but the champ was not given much time to lick his wounds.
The original schedule had called for Secretariat to switch to the turf in the Man o'War, back at Belmont Park, and despite only a nine-day interval between races that plan was dusted off and the red horse was sent back into battle.
Few horses could have coped with such a Stakhanovite workload, but Secretariat would show – yet again – that he thrived on it.
Déjà vu all over again
As the inimitable Yogi Berra would have said – although he really didn’t say everything he said – this was déjà vu all over again. A mere nine days after the fiasco of the Woodward, Secretariat was back at Belmont Park for the G1 Man o’War over a mile and a half, and some things hadn’t changed.
The Heir of the Ages was again entered for the race alongside his barnmate Riva Ridge, with that horse’s participation left in doubt until the eleventh hour, trainer Lucien Laurin keeping his cards so close to his chest that the spots were rubbing off.
There was even another Allen Jerkens-trained longshot waiting for him in the long grass, an ominous portent on the racecard following the shocks provided by Onion and Prove Out.
Only it wouldn’t be the same, not before, not during, not at the end. There were two substantial differences: this was Secretariat’s debut on turf, and this was the plan.
Back before the Woodward, in the radiant afterglow of that Marlboro Cup tour de force, Laurin had made it clear that the Man o’War would be Secretariat’s next race. That had been the objective until Laurin overthought the issue and underprepared his horse, and perhaps the best thing that could be said about the Woodward was that it served as part of Secretariat’s exercise regime for the Man o'War, a paid public workout. And he was certainly ready for the Man o’War.
Three days before the race, Secretariat worked like a locomotive over the turf course at Belmont, the fabled final fast work that had habitually set him up for his greatest performances.
He went through five furlongs in 56⅘s, less than a second outside the world record – British readers who remember Dayjur burning up the track in the 1990 Nunthorpe at York can compare the times, as Dayjur was clocked in 56.16s over summer-fast ground. Some workout, then.
Never saw a horse work faster
“I never saw a horse work faster than that on grass – or, for that matter, anywhere,” the Daily Racing Form chief clocker Gene Schwartz told the New York Times. “I’ve timed lots of horses ‘big’, but they really sent this horse out.”
Secretariat’s switch to turf was not such an outlandish move as it might seem to modern eyes. There was no Breeders’ Cup in those days, and as autumn took hold in earnest the opportunities for the best horses fell away as quickly as the leaves.
So as Secretariat was considered to be the horse who could do anything and everything, a slightly fictional versatility that had occasionally led to his being taken for granted, it was no great seismic shift to switch him to the lawn.
As was the case for most dirt racers of the era, there were turf runners not too far back in his pedigree – his sire Bold Ruler’s own sire was champion British two-year-old Nasrullah, while his dam Somethingroyal’s grandsire was Prince Rose, third in the 1931 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Moreover, the turf division in the US is historically weaker than its main-track companion.
It made sense, on a circumstantial and a commercial basis, for if Secretariat could shine on turf it would make him a more attractive option for European breeders. Win-win, as long as he could win.
Laurin kept Riva Ridge in the Man o’War until 2.30pm – whether he was playing with the media, or his fellow trainers, or simply wracked with indecision is unclear, as the turf was described as firm, eminently suitable for the colt.
Either way, Riva Ridge’s late scratch left six horses to oppose Secretariat, who was a 1-2 chance to get back on the straight and narrow.
By far the most accomplished of them was the pro tem leader on the lawn Tentam, the 7-2 second-choice who carried both the turquoise and gold-spotted silks associated with Northern Dancer and jockey Jorge Velasquez, fresh from his vanquishing of Secretariat aboard Prove Out.
Tentam had won the Met Mile on dirt at Belmont in the summer and then set a new world record for a mile-eighth on turf at Saratoga, and he was riding a three-win streak into the Man o'War.
Credibility and strong competition
His presence would ensure both credibility and strong competition for Big Red, who to the delight of the headline-writers was actually competing in the race named for his nick-namesake.
The rest of the field were relative spear-carriers, although there was a quirk in the shape of London Company, who had been under serious consideration to run in the previous day’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe against Rheingold, Allez France, Dahlia et al. Discretion had won the never-ending battle with valour and he stayed local, and was expected to figure.
Allen Jerkens saddled Triangular, owned like Onion and Prove Out by Hobeau Farm. What was it that Berra had said (or hadn’t said) about déjà vu? Triangular had no obvious chance, but what did that matter with a Jerkens horse? Students of lightning strikes pursed their lips, counted to three, and waited for the thunder.
It never came. Secretariat, with 1A on his saddle towel, was A1 again. This time he broke satisfactorily from the gate, and before the field had reached the clubhouse turn he had surged between horses and into the lead, reminiscent of the move he had made in the stretch of the Bay Shore on his three-year-old debut.
His jockey Ron Turcotte was certainly not waiting around to become a hostage to ill-fortune again. Now and again Turcotte’s tactical nous deserted him, but this time he knew his horse was ready to run hard and he sent him on. It was the right decision.
Secretariat bowled along alone on the lead, rolling with his usual grandeur, not too fast but fast enough and too fast for most. He twelved them through a mile in 1:36, moving easily away from Tentam on the backstretch as that rival closed to within three-quarters of a length, opening up daylight again by three or four lengths.
Turcotte toying with Tentam
“The whole race I was playing with Tentam. I’d let him come up to me and then I’d let Secretariat run a little bit and try to discourage him,” said Turcotte. Within the space of a couple of minutes the Woodward had been reduced to no more than an unpleasant memory, and the old Secretariat moved smoothly around the turn, normal service being thrillingly resumed.
There was no quit in Tentam, though. He was not discouraged, and he vigorously closed the gap again, getting within a half-length as they straightened for home. That was his high-water mark, however, and in just a few strides Secretariat began to draw clear, unhurried, unworried, unstoppable, his superiority over the best on turf as marked as it had (usually) been on dirt.
“I just chirped to him and he pulled away,” said Turcotte, giving Tentam the metaphorical bird, and it was really that easy. Secretariat cleared away through the final furlong under a hand-ride to win by five lengths from Tentam, finishing off strongly to set yet another track record.
He stopped the clock in 2m 24⅘s, three-fifths faster than the old mark and just four-fifths slower than his electrifying performance in the Belmont Stakes.
“As great as Secretariat was on the dirt, he was at least ten to 15 lengths better on the turf,” Turcotte reminisced later in life, a mind-blowing opinion considering all that we know of the horse.
“It was incredible how much lighter he was on his feet on the grass. On the dirt, he had a tendency to hit the ground harder, but on the grass he was just skipping over it like a deer.”
It may be one of the great ‘what if?’ questions of racing, the lost opportunity to turn Secretariat into one of the greatest turf horses of all time, but it’s hard to say with a straight face that Big Red failed to live up to his potential.
Perhaps he was better on turf, but that path would have meant no Triple Crown, no Belmont Stakes, no greatest performance in the history of the sport. That he had the chance to show such prowess, at the end, will have to be enough.
And the end was nigh. The smallprint of Secretariat’s stallion syndication stated that he would be retired at the conclusion of his three-year-old campaign, and time had almost run out. This was his last appearance at Belmont Park, his sixth in all at the track perhaps most associated with his extraordinary genius, and it would be his final run in the US.
His owner Penny Chenery caucused with Laurin about a final appearance, and Laurin rejected the possibility of the Jockey Club Gold Cup over two miles. The Washington DC International was on the table, but it was a long time until mid-November (Tentam would be 7-10 favourite for the race, but would finish off the board behind Dahlia and Big Spruce).
The Canadian International at Woodbine on turf, 20 days away, was a tempting alternative. Secretariat would have one more race. It was almost over, but it ain’t over till it’s over, as Berra might (or might not) have said.
• Buy race programmes and assorted memorabilia at the dedicated Secretariat website at secretariat.com
Race 10: ‘He definitely, definitely should not have run in the Woodward’
Race 9: ‘It was a field of champions and he was just toying with them’ – Ron Turcotte marvels
Race 7: ‘A lavishly paid breeze, a three-inch putt, a slam dunk, a gentle volley into an open court’
Race 2: ‘I think we should send this horse today’ – time for a change of tactics in the Gotham
Race 1: ‘I made a mistake’ – more trouble than expected as Secretariat sets out for greatness
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