Secretariat was a horse that won the 1973 triple crown but along the way he captured the hearts of millions on sports fans all over the world. On the last leg of the triple crown he broke the track record at Belmont that still stands today almost 40 years later. Although many people don’t consider horses athletes this horse changed many minds. It seemed like anything “Big Red” wanted to do he did and he won.
Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler and SomethingRoyal. Although SomethingRoyal wasn’t a champion at all, in fact she only raced once and didn’t run well her mate Bold Ruler was a champion that won the Preakness stakes. The breeding of Bold Ruler is legendary as he was a great horse in stud.
Although this movie should have been made years ago it didn’t happen until the success of the movie Seabiscut and that is a shame. I was about 5 years old and I remember my father who liked to play the ponies had me sit in front of the television to watch the race. Since Secretariat broke the track record in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness (under dispute) my dad knew we would see history made that day.
There was about 68,000 in the stands at Belmont park and since there was only 4 horses in the race there was no show betting so people that wanted to have a winning ticket bought either a win or a place ticket as a souvenir. My dad had some of them in a picture frame for years. You can still find some tickets of Secretariat winning on EBay
I can’t wait for the movie to come out, in a way it will be great to see this great horse on the big screen. A few weeks ago a buddy of mine started a website about New York sports and I listed Secretariat as one of the best moments in New York sports history. The funny thing is I don’t know which moment to pick. The horse also won 3 stakes races as a two year old at Saratoga and Belmont and then won his first race as a three year old at Aqueduct in the Bay Shore stakes.
You can read more of the details on Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy the movie when it comes out in October.
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