1973 Preakness Time Was Disputed
Clockers Argued Secretariat's Second Triple Crown Race
Feb 22, 2007
Triple Crown Spotlight Series: Secretariat
Awards and Stud Career: Secretariat
While 1973 Triple Crown champion Secretariat's greatest moments of fame came in the Kentucky Derby, when he ran fractions frantically faster and faster, and in the Belmont Stakes, where he shattered Sham and won by an astounding thirty lengths, his middle Triple Crown win in the Preakness Stakes received less fanfare for his actual win. In dispute, still today, is the speed at which he completed the run.
Faulty Clocking Disputed After Secretariat's Preakness
A faulty clocking of the race's time apparently deprived the big red champ of a triple race speed record phenomena. As it played out, Secretariat's speed clocking in the Derby and in the Belmont still stand as records. The Belmont time of 2:24 flat for the 1-1/2 miles is a world record that may remain unsurpassable. But many racing fans believe his Preakness time, reduced by an entire second after the fact, should also be a record.
What happened was simple human controversy.
Secretariat's Derby Discouraged Preakness Entries
Only five challengers met Secretariat on Preakness day, 1973. His huge win in Kentucky at Churchill Downs two weeks before had closed the curtain on most of the rest of the field that ran hopelessly outclassed performances in the Derby. Trainers headed their hopefuls elsewhere, away from the big red running machine.
Secretariat's Kentucky Derby track record speed of 1:59-2/5 for the 1-1/4 miles was too much for pretenders to follow him to the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. One real threat, Sham, showed up at Pimlico Race Course to take on Big Red.
Just as in the Derby, however, Secretariat, running easy under his regular jockey, Ron Turcotte, picked up Sham when he was ready and quickly dispensed his rival in the backstretch turn. In cruise control, Secretariat stretched out in the final furlongs in a stride that was a picture of beauty and power.
Secretariat's Preakness Clocked At Three Times
The big red runner hit the finish wire 2-1/2 lengths ahead of the stubborn Sham. In so doing, Secretariat thrust himself and his connections into Triple Crown limelight. A win at Belmont Park three weeks down the road would make him the ninth American Triple Crown champion. There had been no TC champ since 1948, when Citation ran the gamut. The 1973 racing world was awhirl.
But, rewind. How fast had Secretariat run the 1-3/16 mile Preakness? Three different clocking times were offered!
The Pimlico electric timer clocked the big red machine in 1:54 flat for the race, not a track record. Others disputed that, however. The Daily Racing Form version of the race's clocked time was 1:53-2/5, which would be a record time.
The dispute went to arbitration. In a result highly criticized, Pimlico officials set the time for all time at 1:54-2/5. Their evidence was the hand clocked time presented by E.T. McLean Jr., the race course's official clocker.
Tank's Prospect Gets Preakness Record
In 1985, Tank's Prospect traveled the Preakness course in 1:53.2, and the record is his.
Secretariat was a blitzkrieg in his Derby, blazing through each quarter mile faster than the one before, an accomplishment unmatched in the all time history of thoroughbred racing. At Belmont, Secretariat set a 2:24 flat reading for 1-1/2 miles, a world record untouched. A record time of 1:59-2/5 at Kentucky's Churchill Downs in the 1973 Kentucky Derby, and a world record time a few weeks later at Belmont Park in the final leg of a Triple Crown title season suggest that Secretariat also sealed the track record at Pimlico in the Preakness.
The accepted facts say differently, but many believe an asterick applies at Pimlico, where Secretariat's white-stockinged feet still pummel the track in record-breaking memory.
