Introducing: Big Red
Big Red embodies the virtual essence of Secretariat, the profoundly impactful racehorse in historical annals. Secretariat’s renowned feats encompass a 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes and an epochal Triple Crown triumph in 1973.
As the sole non-human to secure a place among ESPN’s top 50 athletes of the 20th century, Secretariat continues to maintain unassailable records within the realm of the Triple Crown series (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes).
On June 9, 1973, the final race day of the Triple Crown at Belmont Park, the American public was humming with excitement for the race that could determine the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. Secretariat, for his part, was ready to deliver.
Unlike in his previous races, this time Secretariat did not start from behind. Instead, he bolted from the gate and secured good placement along the inside lane. His long-time rival, Sham, gave him some competition at the start, but by the half-mile mark, Secretariat pulled away. And he just kept accelerating.
“Down the backstretch, with a half-mile to go, Secretariat was clearly giving me a rocket ride,” Turcotte recalled in 1993. “I never experienced anything like it. Faster, faster, faster. Enemy hoofbeats soon disappeared; too far behind us on the track for me to hear. What a race. What a memory.”
By the time Secretariat and Turcotte rounded the final corner they were all alone. The announcer, Chic Anderson, narrated to spectators, “He’s moving like a tre-mend-ous machine…”
Secretariat crushed the competition — first by 10 lengths, then 20, and eventually a gob-stopping 31 lengths — to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since 1948. A famous Sports Illustrated photo shows Turcotte looking back during the final leg of the race to see the long empty stretch that Secretariat had opened between him and his nearest rivals.
Penny Chenery would say about Secretariat in the Belmont race, “Why did he keep on running when he’d passed everybody by almost an eighth of a mile? My gut feeling is that it was his home track and he was ready for that race. I just think he got out there and put away Sham early and just felt ‘Okay, I feel good, I’m just going to show them how I can run.’”
Please take your time and refer to this link for his full bio: https://www.history.com/topics/sports/secretariat
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