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The legend of the record-breaking Secretariat, ‘the greatest horse that ever lived’

Jamie Haase Jamie Haase

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    • America’s first Triple Crown winner for quarter of a century, Secretariat’s speed records from 1973 still stand today. Jamie Haase tracks the enduring significance of the bright chestnut who reset racing’s boundaries

    More than half a century later, Secretariat’s records and reputation still reign supreme,” said Leeanne Meadows Ladin, author and president of the non-profit Secretariat For Virginia.

    Today, Leeanne lives in the farm manager’s house at Meadow Stable, Virginia, surrounded by a landscape that once raised and conditioned a young Secretariat – his foaling shed and yearling barn, largely untouched, are preserved as historic landmarks.

    Earlier this year, nearly 350 acres of adjacent pastureland, including “The Cove,” locally known as Secretariat’s nursery, were placed under permanent conservation easements. From this vantage, Leeanne lives alongside a legacy firmly grounded – not distant history, but uninterrupted, a continuum between yesterday and tomorrow.

    Horseracing in the United States dates to the early 17th century, with Long Island’s Newmarket Course, established in 1665, marking the first organised racetrack in colonial America. Named for Britain’s racing capital, it was designed to formalise English racing tradition throughout the colonies. Three centuries later, on Saturday, 9 June 1973, American thoroughbred racing reached a pinnacle never before seen – and never replicated since.

    At the summit stood a chestnut colt whose supremacy not only secured the Triple Crown, but reset the sport’s boundaries. For five extraordinary weeks, the record books were not simply rewritten but reimagined and today Secretariat’s official times still stand unchallenged.

    ‘Everything about Secretariat is out of this world’

    Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby in 1min 59.4sec over 1¼ miles and the Preakness Stakes in 1min 53sec over 1³⁄₁₆ miles. At Belmont Park, he completed the sweep with one of the most dominant performances in sporting history.

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