Secretariat had an unusually large heart, an engine that propelled him to a Triple Crown sweep 50 years ago. The colt nicknamed Big Red remains the heartbeat of thoroughbred racing, an industry that has yet to see such dominance on and off the track replicated.
His name recognition, even among those who don’t follow sports, is still strong 34 years after his death, and so is his legacy. Eight of his descendants will run in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, including early 3-1 favorite Forte.
“He’s still the bar to me,” said Bob Baffert, who trained Triple Crown winners American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. “I still ask strangers, ‘Who’s the best horse you ever heard of?’, and I’m hoping they say Pharoah. They say Secretariat.”
Secretariat ended a 25-year Triple Crown drought when he won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, doing so in record times that still stand.
“It says he was beautifully prepared for each of those races and his competition was not as good as he was,” said Dave Johnson, the track announcer for the 1973 Belmont Stakes that Secretariat won by an astounding 31 lengths in Elmont, New York. “He was a special animal.”