Secretariat's Triple Crown, 1973

There were no pace percentiles or speed figures published for these races in 1973, so this page invents none. Where a modern card would print a figure, this one prints the documented fraction or chart position instead. Anything the public record we found does not state is marked ?. Three races, five weeks, one horse — and three stakes records that still stand.

Leg 1 — Kentucky Derby · Churchill Downs

The pre-race picture

Secretariat arrived off a third-place finish in the Wood Memorial two weeks earlier (a mouth abscess was later reported as a factor) and was still made the morning-line favorite; he was coupled in the betting with stablemate Angle Light — both trained by Lucien Laurin — and the entry went off 3–2. The documented early-speed principals, per the period writers: Shecky Greene (Fountain of Youth winner, a sprinter stretching out), Angle Light (the Wood winner) and Royal and Regal were seen as the field's appreciable early speed. Sham, winner of the Santa Anita Derby and second in the Wood, was the clear second choice at 5–2 and the horse the writers gave the best chance of an upset.

* Final odds to $1 as published with the chart. Morning-line figures for individual horses were not in the sources found — Secretariat was reported as the morning-line favorite; the 1.50 shown is the coupled entry's final price. Secretariat paid $5.00 / $3.20 / $3.00 (win/place/show).

Pace picture — chart-derived

Secretariat's position at each call (chart positions, as published from the chart). Times shown are the race (leader's) fractions at each call:

The leader: Shecky Greene from the gate to about seven furlongs — he led by 3 at the half — then Sham from the far turn to the final furlong, then Secretariat.

Leg 2 — Preakness Stakes · Pimlico Race Course

The pre-race picture

Only six went to the post — the credentials of the top two scared the field down. Secretariat was the 1–5 favorite from post 3; Sham (post 1, 3.10) was again named as the only horse given a chance to beat him, with Our Native the writers' outside contender. The documented early speed belonged to the new shooters: Ecole Etage, coming off wins in the General George and the Preakness Prep, and Torsion. A seventh entry, The Lark Twist, was scratched by his owner and a Maryland rule made the scratch irreversible — his attempt to re-enter was denied.

* Final odds to $1 as published with the chart. Secretariat paid $2.60 / $2.20 / $2.20. The Preakness chart of the era was published by post position; program numbers beyond the post were not in the sources found (?).

Pace picture — chart-derived

Two clocks, one race. The fractions as published at the time, both versions:

The running story the chart supports: Ecole Etage and Torsion showed the early foot; Secretariat was last away, moved on the first turn, led entering the backstretch, and Sham — who had bumped with Deadly Dream at the break — was the only one who could stay with the move. The Derby's first three finished in the same order — the first time that had ever happened across the Derby and Preakness.

Leg 3 — Belmont Stakes · Belmont Park

The pre-race picture

Twenty-five years had passed since Citation, and six horses in that span had won the first two legs and failed here. Secretariat — on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated that week — was sent off at 1–10 (the Associated Press had rated him 2–5 in advance). The angles against him, as Steve Cady of The New York Times laid them out: the added distance, and a pace that went too fast or too slow — in either of which cases he felt Sham could win; Sham was also chasing the distinction of being runner-up in all three legs. Knightly Dawn, Sham's stablemate, was entered late specifically to bring early speed into the race — then scratched before race day when the track stayed dry (his trainer said he would run only if it rained). His scratch also trimmed the purse. Behind the top two: My Gallant, a son of Gallant Man, who held the Belmont track record of 2:26⅗.

* Final odds to $1 as published with the chart. Secretariat paid $2.60 / $2.20; with five starters, no show betting was offered. † Margins as printed in the chart (lengths behind the horse in front at the finish). Bettors left 5,617 winning $2 tickets on Secretariat uncashed, kept as souvenirs.

"Secretariat is widening now! He is moving like a tremendous machine!" — Chic Anderson, CBS track announcer, on the backstretch call, June 9, 1973

Pace picture — chart-derived

The duel, and then the separation — Secretariat's lead at each call, from the chart and the documented record:

‡ As reported by Sports Illustrated's account of the race ("turning for home, Secretariat was 20 in front"); Anderson's stretch call had him 25 in front. Quarter splits: :23⅗ · :22⅗ · :23⅗ · :24⅖ · :24⅘ · :25 — the last half-mile run in :49⅘ by a horse who had already run a mile in 1:34⅕.

The three times — and what still stands

Secretariat holds the stakes record in all three legs of the Triple Crown — each set in the same five weeks of 1973, each still standing more than fifty years later. A blue-and-white checkered pole in Meadow Stable's colors now stands 253 feet 2 inches before the Belmont finish line, marking where the second-place horse was when Secretariat crossed the wire.

Sources: Wikipedia race pages and their cited charts (1973 Kentucky Derby; 1973 Preakness Stakes; 1973 Belmont Stakes — chart data via the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and New York Times charts of June 1973 and the Daily Racing Form Preakness chart); NYRA, "Secretariat — 1973 Triple Crown Winners"; Paulick Report, "Secretariat In The Preakness" (jockey recollections); BloodHorse, "Secretariat's Preakness Time Changed" (June 19, 2012); Sports Illustrated vault account of the 1973 Belmont; Secretariat.com fractional analysis of the 1973 Kentucky Derby. Times are shown in fifths of a second, as timed in 1973. Odds are final odds to $1 as published with the charts.