Milks a lot of of one race? Quite a few chinks? Agree to disagree on that one.
His records for all three Triple Crown races still stand after all these years.
He wasn’t perfect, nope. He lost the Wood Memorial and had an abscess in his mouth. Not only was he in pain, that infection was raging in his system. No real good reasons for losses in the Woodward and Whitney.
He set a world record for 1 1/8 miles in the inaugural Marlboro Cup.
In addition to his record-setting races on dirt, he won two turf races, including beating a world-record holder in the Man o’War. There aren’t too many horses who can run equally well on both surfaces.
The abscess in nonsense. Another Bill Nack fantasy.
At least as far as timing. There was a YouTube film of the vet at Churchill talking how he found that abscess Tuesday after the Wood - no one found it on Wood day. AND more telling is NO PUBLICATION PRINTED ABOUT AN ABSCESS, likely for a year (my ‘74 Racing Form Hatton article mentions it). Look up Sports Ill and DRF all the way through summer ‘73, you will find “it’s a mystery why he lost the Wood”.
Nack is behind a lot of nonsense especially with Secretariat - he’s a schoolgirl with him. Used to be people called not only his book on Sec “the bible” but ALSO Raymond Wolfe - which is a GREAT book with wonderful photos and FACTS/data, not poetic prose. NOT ONCE does the Wolfe book mention any abscess.
I’m glad you don’t see the Woodward and Whitney as well excused - like Hatton above, who complains of a mysterious fever and “not being trained” because Riva Ridge was scratched from the Woodward for rain - nonsense. If you enter a horse, you better train it reasonably.
But the abscess if you start looking into it, was never mentioned for almost a year or so (I had an on-line fan friend who had done a college paper on Secretariat at the time - and said she could not find anything herself as time went by until at least a year). Why would they not bring out that excuse during the season for the sports writers and fans? Were they hoping for better prices on bets?