Catching Up With Secret Status

Secret Status and Pat Day win the 2000 Kentucky Oaks. (Photo by HorsePhotos)
When Secret Status lined up for the 2000 Kentucky Oaks, the filly was already a racetrack veteran with eight starts on her record, including a win in the Florida Oaks in her previous start.
The filly was part of a full field of 14 in the race and started out the race in second to last. But as the field raced toward the finish line, she worked her way through the pack and was first by a length by the stretch call. From there Secret Status’s only job was to expand her lead, a job she did perfectly, crossing the wire 6 ¾ lengths ahead of second-place finisher Rings a Chime.
Next up for Secret Status was the Mother Goose at Belmont Park nearly two months later. The field was much smaller this time, with just seven horses lining up for the 1 1/8-mile race but it was a star studded field. Secret Status, Jostle, Finder’s Fee, and Cat Cay were just some of the fillies in the gate, but Secret Status again came out the winner, this time by 2 ¼ lengths.
The Mother Goose was Secret Status’s last victory of the year but she still put in credible performances in her races. She was third to Jostle in the Coaching Club American Oaks after sitting close to the lead throughout the race. Jostle again got the best of Secret Status in the Alabama Stakes in their next start but Secret Status was closer this time, finishing second 3 ¾ lengths behind her foe.  But in her final start of the year, Secret Status threw in the towel at Belmont when finishing sixth in the Gazelle, 15 ¾ lengths behind the winner.
Secret Status returned seven months later in an allowance at Keeneland and showed a flash of her winning form. After sitting near the back of the pack again, Secret Status took command of the seven furlong race by the stretch call and pulled away to win by two lengths with some urging by jockey Pat Day.
SECRET STATUS AND DAY AT KEENELAND

Photo by HorsePhotos
Next up was the Louisville Breeders’ Cup Handicap, a race at Churchill Downs 364 days after her Kentucky Oaks win on the same track. Breaking out of the one-hole, Secret Status had the faith of the bettors behind her as she went off at odd of 9-to-10. Through the early stages of the race, Secret Status looked like she may be able to win two in a row as she sat just a few lengths off the leader. But when Day asked her to go after the leaders in the final stages of the race, he found that his mount was empty and they galloped home sixth of eight horses.
A month later, Secret Status returned to Churchill Downs for the Fleur de Lis Handicap and she still had the faith of the bettors, who sent her off as the 1.90-to-1 favorite. She was facing Saudi Poetry again, a filly who had won the Louisville Breeders’ Cup Handicap in their last match up. Secret Status again sat near the back of the field, settling comfortably for Pat Day. In the far turn, Day took her six wide to go for the lead and she chased after Saudi Poetry, who had the lead. Secret Status was in an all-out drive to catch the leader but ran out of ground, finishing second.
Trainer Neil Howard dropped Secret Status back down to allowance company for her next two starts and she won the first allowance by a length before finishing second in the next start. Her connections must have felt pretty confident in those performances as they tried her in Grade 1 company for her next start but Secret Status could run no better than sixth, drawing an end to her career.
"We think that maybe she's kind of tailing off. She didn't quite run as well as we thought she would in her last couple of starts, so we're going to call it a day," Howard told the Daily Racing Form. "She's going to be a broodmare now."
Secret Status made 19 starts with eight victories, including three graded stakes wins, for over $1 million in earnings. She retired to co-breeder Bill Farish’s Lane’s End Farm where both her sire and her dam resided and hopes for her future as a broodmare were high, especially when her younger full brother Alumni Hall became a graded stakes winner.
In her first year as a broodmare, Secret Status went to European Horse of the Year Giant’s Causeway, who was in his second year at stud. The mating produced the filly Code Book, who won one of her starts before retiring to the shed where two of her four foals to race have visited the winner’s circle.
Overall, Secret Status has had 10 foals with eight of them making it to the track and four of them winning. Secret Status has given major returns to her connections through the years in the auction ring with three of her five foals to go through the ring bringing $350,000 or more as a yearling. The highlights of those results come from Objectivity, a colt by Storm Cat, bringing $6.3-million and Dunkirk, a colt by Unbridled’s Song bringing $3.7-million.
In addition to being her second-highest seller, Dunkirk has no doubt been Secret Status’s best foal to race so far.
Dunkirk won his first two starts impressively, encouraging his connections to jump on the Kentucky Derby trail. The colt finished second to Quality Road in the Florida Derby in his graded stakes debut, enough to send him to the Kentucky Derby. That was the colt’s only off-the-board finish, as he finished 11th. Dunkirk’s final start came in the Belmont Stakes where he finished a good second to Summer Bird before having to be retired to injury.
DUNKIRK PRIOR TO THE 2009 BELMONT STAKES

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Dunkirk helped carry Secret Status’s legacy on after his race career, being named the leading first-crop sire in 2013 and finishing sixth in the second-crop rankings in 2014. Dunkirk was sold to Japan in the summer of 2014 and is standing his first season in the country this year.
Secret Status’s 4-year-old Special Agent is currently her only active foal on the track. Secret Status won’t have 2-year-olds hitting the track in 2015 or 2016 but she has been bred to Smart Strike for 2015.
Secret Status still resides at Lane’s End Farm where she was born and raised. While she is approaching the end of her broodmare career, her foals’ success in the breeding shed have assured that her impact on the breed will be felt for years to come.