From Lady’s Secret and A.P. Indy to Gun Runner and Justify, the legendary racehorse’s descendants are well represented among the elite – as Patricia McQueen reports
As the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame welcomes new members this week, it’s worth reflecting on Secretariat’s influence as a sire as measured by his presence in the pedigrees of Hall of Fame members. After all, these horses are the best of the best.
It’s not common at all for a Hall of Fame horse to sire another Hall of Fame horse; in fact, it’s quite rare in the modern era.
As evidence, look at the group of 90 horses in the Hall of Fame whose primary racing careers included 1970 and later. It’s an arbitrary cutoff, but one based on the significant increase in the annual number of foals beginning in the late 1960s, meaning an expansion in the number of both stallions and mares compared to earlier decades.
Only eight stallions whose own superb racing careers eventually landed them in the Hall of Fame have sired one or more Hall of Fame members that raced in the included time frame: Bold Ruler (sire of Secretariat), Nashua (Shuvee), Swoon’s Son (Chris Evert), Secretariat (Lady’s Secret), Seattle Slew (Slew o’Gold and A.P. Indy), Alydar (Easy Goer and Alysheba), Buckpasser (La Prevoyante) and Affirmed (Flawlessly).
Over the same time period, only 11 Hall of Fame members were the broodmare sires of one or more Hall of Fame members: Hill Prince (broodmare sire of Shuvee), Native Dancer (Ruffian), Tim Tam (Davona Dale), Gallant Man (Genuine Risk), Buckpasser (Slew o’Gold and Easy Goer), Tom Fool (Foolish Pleasure), Secretariat (A.P. Indy), Seattle Slew (Cigar), Alydar (Lure), A.P. Indy (Royal Delta), and Ghostzapper (Justify).
You’ll notice that Secretariat is one of just four Hall of Fame members who are both the sire and broodmare sire of other Hall of Fame members during this time frame. That’s pretty elite company indeed.
Lady’s Secret
Secretariat’s most accomplished offspring was his daughter Lady’s Secret, one of the best female runners of all time.
There was never any doubt that she was destined for the Hall of Fame after her incredible 1986 campaign that culminated in Horse of the Year honors after she toyed with her rivals to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The ‘Iron Lady’ won 10 of 15 starts that year – eight of them G1 wins – and defeated males in Saratoga’s prestigious Whitney.
As a three-year-old the previous year, she won eight consecutive stakes, progressing from sprints to G1 distance competition. She never got a rubber match with rival Mom’s Command, who got the nod for champion three-year-old filly honors in 1985 as the reigning Filly Triple Crown winner. Still, her 1986 campaign put Lady’s Secret in the Hall of Fame in 1992.
A.P. Indy
That was the same year that A.P. Indy earned his own place among racing’s greats. Secretariat’s daughter Weekend Surprise had already produced Preakness winner Summer Squall, but it was A.P. Indy who elevated her to broodmare stardom.
Forced to scratch the morning of the 1992 Kentucky Derby with a foot problem, A.P. Indy was rerouted by trainer Neil Drysdale with sights set on the Belmont Stakes. A romp in the Peter Pan had him ready for the big event, and he obliged with a victory in 2:26, equaling the second-fastest Belmont ever run.
Only Secretariat has ever completed those 12 furlongs faster, in a 2:24 clocking that has never even been approached. After a break, A.P. Indy came up short in two more races before winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic to close out his career.
He received Horse of the Year honors along with champion three-year-old male. Eight years later, he joined his grandsire in the Hall of Fame.
The recent eight
In the past six years, eight new Hall of Famers (including two inducted this year) are Secretariat descendants, primarily through his grandsons A.P. Indy and Storm Cat. This group is incredible indeed – two Triple Crown winners, a pair of two-time Horses of the Year, three mares who earned multiple championships as they excelled year after year, and another Horse of the Year who has quickly become a stallion of significant influence himself.
Gun Runner (2024 inductee), out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Quiet Giant
The only horse currently in the Hall of Fame whose Storm Cat influence comes through Giant’s Causeway, Gun Runner was a very good three-year-old in 2016, and took it up several notches at four.
He romped through the division’s top races – the Stephen Foster, Whitney, Woodward and Breeders’ Cup Classic, and was an easy choice for Horse of the Year in 2017. After a final win the Pegasus World Cup in early 2018, it’s no surprise that he gets into the Hall of Fame when first eligible.
Justify (2024), by Scat Daddy out of the Ghostzapper mare Stage Magic
Scat Daddy is a male line descendant of Storm Cat through his son Hennessy, while Stage Magic is out of a mare by A.P. Indy’s son Pulpit. Justify’s career was short, spanning just six races in less than four months, but his dominance in the 2018 Triple Crown earned him an automatic berth in the Hall of Fame.
California Chrome (2023), by Pulpit’s son Lucky Pulpit
The flashy fan favorite is a modern-day rarity: he earned his two Horse of the Year titles in non-consecutive years. The first came in 2014 after winning six stakes, including the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, plus the Hollywood Derby on the turf.
An ambitious 2015 European campaign was scrapped because of various ailments, and California Chrome came back with a vengeance in 2016. As a five-year-old, he won seven of eight races, including the Pacific Classic and the Dubai World Cup, the latter despite his saddle slipping badly in the stretch.
Beholder (2022), by Henny Hughes, whose sire Hennessy is by Storm Cat
There have been some great mares in this century, and one of the best is Beholder. She earned Eclipse Awards at two, three, five and six, and won three Breeders’ Cup races – the Juvenile Fillies and two editions of the Distaff, at three and six.
She’s the only Juvenile Fillies winner to come back to win the Distaff. Over her remarkable career, she finished first or second in 24 of 26 starts, and defeated males in the Pacific Classic.
Tepin (2022), by Storm Cat’s son Bernstein
A stakes winner at two in 2013, Tepin really blossomed on the turf at four and five, winning 11 of 15 starts those two years, with four seconds. She won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile, and missed a second Mile the next year by just a half-length in her final season of racing, when she also won the G1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot. Tepin earned the Eclipse as champion turf mare in both 2015 and 2016.
American Pharoah (2021), out of Littleprincessemma, a daughter of Storm Cat’s son Yankee Gentleman
He doesn’t really need much in the way of explanation. In 2015, American Pharoah became the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 – a span of 37 years. A champion at two, he continued on at three to win seven of eight starts that year, wrapping up his career with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Horse of the Year honors.
Wise Dan (2020), by Wiseman’s Ferry, a son of Storm Cat’s son Hennessy
His dam Lisa Danielle was out of the unraced Secretariat mare Askmysecretary; that makes him the only Hall of Famer to date who descends from a Secretariat mare other than Terlingua and Weekend Surprise.
Wise Dan is also the only two-time Horse of the Year (since the beginning of the Eclipse Awards in 1971) who added the titles of champion older male and champion turf male both years. During his award-winning campaigns in 2012 and 2013, he won 11 of 13 starts, with two seconds; at one point he had a nine-race winning streak.
Royal Delta (2019), out of Delta Princess, a daughter of A.P. Indy
Another top-class mare whose career spanned several years, she first earned an Eclipse as champion three-year-old filly in 2011. She followed that with two consecutive championships as older filly or mare in 2012 and 2013.
Royal Delta won several of the top races for fillies and mares, including two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, then known as the Ladies’ Classic, at ages three and four.
If anyone is keeping track of the influence of Secretariat’s grandsons, of these eight Secretariat descendants inducted into the Hall of Fame from 2019 to 2024, five are tail male to a Secretariat grandson (four to Storm Cat and one to A.P. Indy).
On the female side of the pedigrees, both A.P. Indy and Storm Cat appear in two different horses. That’s pretty impressive for a stallion who never seemed to get the credit he deserved as a sire.
‘Breed the best to the best, and hope for the best’
And now for a different take on the Hall of Fame. There’s an old industry adage: ‘Breed the best to the best, and hope for the best.’
Secretariat, still considered the best of the best by many, sired foals produced from two fellow Hall of Famers – Chris Evert and Ta Wee. Coincidentally, both mares produced Secretariat stakes winners in 1976, although technically neither mare actually entered the Hall of Fame until later (Chris Evert in 1988, Ta Wee in 1994).
Chris Evert’s daughter was named Six Crowns, a reflection of both parents’ Triple Crown wins (Chris Evert had won the Filly Triple Crown).
While she became a stakes winner, Six Crowns was even better as a broodmare. Her fourth foal was G1 winner Classic Crown, but her second foal Chief’s Crown was the star of the family.
Champion two-year-old male in 1984 when he earned a place in racing folklore as the first-ever winner of a Breeders’ Cup race in the Juvenile at Hollywood Park, he was placed in all three Triple Crown races the next year and went on to become a very good sire despite an early demise at just 15 years of age.
Chief’s Crown still shows up in pedigrees today; he’s a great-grandsire of Coolmore’s prominent stallion Wootton Bassett (as is Gone West, another Secretariat grandson). He’s also an ancestor of recently-retired Casa Creed, who happened to win the 2019 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes.
It took Ta Wee’s stakes-winning Secretariat daughter Tweak a little longer to have an impact on the breed, but what an impact it is. She’s the fourth dam of the half-brothers Not This Time and Liam’s Map; both are young sires making an impact, especially Not This Time (who happens to be a son of Giant’s Causeway).
There will be more Hall of Fame inductees tracing to Secretariat. Among recent runners, Flightline is a certainty when he becomes eligible; he carries both A.P. Indy and Storm Cat. There’s also Cody’s Wish, a great-great grandson of A.P. Indy.
More importantly in my mind, there’s one more that shouldn’t get away. It was perhaps only bad luck that Secretariat’s son Risen Star didn’t follow in his sire’s footsteps with a Triple Crown sweep of his own.
He had to settle for a fast-closing third in the Kentucky Derby, a Preakness victory, and the best possible imitation of his sire in the 1988 Belmont Stakes – he won that race by 14¾ lengths, and his time of 2:26⅖ is still tied for the third-fastest Belmont in history.
He has the credentials for the Hall of Fame, and horses from his era are eligible for review in 2026.
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