Secretariat's Cautionary Tale

Originally published in the Aug. 13 edition of Blood-Horse Daily. To download the Blood-Horse Daily smartphone app or to receive the edition in your inbox each evening, visit BloodHorse.com/Daily.

As the connections of American Pharoah wrestle with trying to piece together a schedule for his races post-Triple Crown, the parallels to another Triple Crown winner 42 years ago are eerily similar.

Both American Pharoah and Secretariat had been sold to breeding concerns before embarking on the Triple Crown series, and the owners of both horses—Ahmed Zayat this year and Penny Chenery of Meadow Stable in 1973—knew they had limited time to race their superstars, as neither American Pharoah nor Secretariat would run beyond his 3-year-old season. Both horses came out of the Triple Crown series still in top form.

Secretariat was sent to Arlington Park for the Invitational Stakes, written specifically for him, and won that June 30 race by nine lengths. American Pharoah was given a longer break after the Belmont Stakes presented by DraftKings (gr. I), reappearing Aug. 2 in the William Hill Haskell Invitational Stakes (gr. I) and winning in a stunning geared-down performance.

While indications from trainer Bob Baffert are that American Pharoah has bounced back after the Haskell and seems a good breeze or two away from tackling the Travers Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga, Baffert admits that his Triple Crown winner took a few days longer to come back to himself after the Haskell, and even though the race didn't seem to take anything out of him, he has logged thousands of travel miles this year, which could have an effect on him at some point.

Secretariat provides a cautionary tale that no horse should be thought of as unbeatable. Instead of running against his classmates after the Invitational, Chenery and trainer Lucien Laurin ran Secretariat against older horses in the Whitney Stakes (gr. II), even after jockey Ron Turcotte told Laurin the horse didn't feel right in his pre-race breeze. Although Secretariat was running a fever, he tackled the Whitney anyway. Onion beat him by a length.

"I was trying to get prestige, money, records, everything I could," Chenery said 40 years later. "The Whitney was a prestigious race, and we knew the end was coming. There was a feeling this horse could do anything, and some of the decisions I made were not good."

After a stunning win in the Marlboro Cup, Secretariat faced the starter at a sloppy Belmont Park in the Woodward (gr. I) Sept. 29. He had been working over grass for a possible turf start, but a last-minute change put him in the Woodward. Light on training, Secretariat stalled late and was defeated by Prove Out.

"He didn't have his usual preparations," Chenery said. "We were making a lot of last-minute decisions and took some liberties that didn't work out."

Secretariat dominated his final two races, and despite the defeats his legacy was secure. American Pharoah will write his final pages in the weeks to come.