Horse Racing Fantasy Community

I've been looking forward to writing this entry for quite awhile, cuz I really do think 1973 was the single greatest year in racing history because of SECRETARIAT. George Halas, the legendary founder of the National Football League and the owner/coach of the Chicago Bears, said it best when he presented Gale Sayers for enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 when he said simply, "His like will never be seen again." The same can be said about SECRETARIAT; others won more races, Triple Crowns, and more Eclipse Awards, but the reason his legend gets stronger with every passing year is that the way he won was so incredible as to be almost supernatural. So let's set the 1973 scene for you to put his performance in context:
In the spring of 1973, the Watergate hearings, which would captivate the nation and forever change the public's view of our elected officials, were in full swing, and Richard Nixon made his most infamous statement to the press:

1973 was a historical year because that was the year something called the Paris Peace Accords were signed, which ended the Vietnam War. No need to see a video of Kissinger exiting the luxurious Paris location where that document was signed. That would be boring. Ok. Moving on . . .

The 1970s was not only the Golden Age of Thoroughbred Racing, but arguably also the Golden Age of Cinema, and 1973 was a year that saw several truly fantastic films on the big screen. Who could forget The Exorcist?

Tatum O'neal became the youngest person that has ever won an Oscar for her amazing performance in Paper Moon, a great film that wasn't even nominated for Best Picture!

And Newman and Redford were together again, with The Sting winning Best Picture!

I love most 1970s music, too, especially the early 1970s. A great example is Jim Croce:

And in the world of sports outside SECRETARIAT, George Foreman totally destroyed Joe Frazier:

A certain Buffalo Bills halfback became the first ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, and the only man to ever do it in a 14 game season (no video for that one), but the story that year in sports was SECRETARIAT. Big things were expected of him entering the 1973 racing season, as he had unanimously won Horse of the Year honors in 1972 as a 2-year-old (still unmatched in history) and, in a move enacted to guarantee the future of The Meadow Stable, was syndicated for a then world-record of over $6 million before he ever ran a race as a 3-year-old. In short, he was expected to win The Triple Crown, even though there hadn't been one in 25 years, since 1948. But it was the way he won that made him one of a kind. First it was the Kentucky Derby, in which he set the still-standing record and ran each of the five quarter-miles faster, something no other horse has ever done at that distance. Remember, I said EVER, and I mean it!

Then came the Preakness, when he made a totally unexpected move around the first turn and drew away from Sham in the stretch, even though Sham was under a fierce whip from Pincay, and Ron Turcotte didn't even have his stick drawn. Totally amazing!

Then came June 9, 1973. He had already been on the covers of Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated in the two weeks leading up to it, and there wasn't a sensible human being on the planet that didn't think he would win and become the ninth Triple Crown Champion. Unbelievably, he gave history a performance so stunning that it doesn't look real. But it was, and it has never even been approached before or since. Simply put, the reason this horse is the most popular thoroughbred of all-time and always will be is because on the biggest stages, he not only performed, but his greatness was demonstrated in three distinctly different ways, on three different tracks in five weeks, and he saved his best for the greatest stage imaginable: A Belmont Stakes with a Triple Crown on the line. To this day, this race is the most watched horserace in television history. When you watch it, it's quite easy to see why: