The 2:24 time is still, 48 years later, the fastest 1 1/2 miles ever run on dirt.
bump for later
Go Big Red!!!
Somewhere I still have a $2.00 “WIN” ticket from this race
NYRA made a bundle from people like me who only wanted a souvenir.
In 1972, Secretariat won seven of nine starts as a 2-year-old to win the Horse of the Year award. His breeding rights were then sold for a then-world record of $6 million.
He won his first two starts as a 3-year-old, but faltered in the Wood Memorial, his final race before the Kentucky Derby. Many experts wondered if he had distance limitations, as his pedigree would suggest.
“In fact, a modicum of suspense was needed to save the Derby from tedium,” wrote Time. “No one wants to bet against a horse that seems invincible, and invincible is exactly what Secretariat appeared to be before the Wood.”
Secretariat was a 3-2 favorite heading into the Derby; after a slow first quarter-mile, he ran each of the next four quarter-miles faster than the prior one, and exploded into the lead at the top of the stretch. He blew by his rival Sham, running the final quarter-mile in 23 1/5 seconds and finishing 2 1/2 lengths in front. He became the first horse to run the Derby in under two minutes, setting a track-record time of 1:59 2/5.
In the Preakness, Secretariat broke last but made an incredible last-to-first move on the first turn and cruised to a 2 1/2-length victory.
“If there are still any racegoers who are not convinced that Secretariat is the best 3-year-old in the land, one hardly knows where to search for them,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Whitney Tower. “And should they be found, June 9 will rout them all.”
Still, there were many observers who doubted Secretariat could win at the 1 1/2 mile distance of the Belmont Stakes. Were they ever wrong.
Just four other horses dared to challenge him in the Belmont, and only Sham posed a realistic threat. At the start, under instructions to run head-to-head with Secretariat, jockey Laffit Pincay rode Sham stride-for-stride through the fastest fractions in Belmont Stakes history. He couldn’t maintain the pace and began dropping back near the halfway point.
As Secretariat blazed into the far turn, track announcer Chick Anderson reacted in amazement. “Secretariat is widening now,” he said. “He is moving like a tremendous machine.”
Many seasoned observers didn’t believe he could continue running at the remarkable pace. Secretariat biographer William Nack told ESPN’s SportsCentury that he recalled thinking, “He’s going to totally collapse down the stretch. He can’t keep this up.”
As he entered the stretch with an 18-length lead, jockey Ron Turcotte famously looked back to his competitors in the distance, and then glanced to the side. According to Turcotte, he was not looking for other horses, but for the timer.
The timer showed that Secretariat had, at 1:59, run the fastest 1 1/4 mile ever at Belmont Park. In the final quarter mile, Secretariat dramatically widened his advantage to 31 lengths and stopped the clock at 2:24, destroying the old track and stakes record by more than 2 1/2 seconds.
Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford declared, “It was the greatest performance by a racehorse in this century. … The 105th Belmont Stakes will rank among sport’s most spectacular performances, right up there with Joe Louis' one-round knockout of Max Schmeling and the Olympic feats of Jessie Owens, Jean-Claude Killy and Mark Spitz.”
Golf legend Jack Nicklaus told CBS commentator Heywood Hale Broun that he cried while watching the race on television. Broun responded, “All of your life, in your game, you’ve been striving for perfection. At the end of the Belmont, you saw it.”
Secretariat’s run of seeming invincibility came to an end on August 4 1973 in the Whitney Handicap – at the hooves of a horse called, perhaps somewhat ignominiously, Onion.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/aug/01/forgotten-story-onion-secretariat-triple-crown
That horse is a GOAT.