1973 Derby Fractions Were Dazzling
Big Red's Churchill Downs Quarter Mile Clockings: Each One Faster
In thoroughbred racing, a horse's fractions are generally a few ticks slower as he moves through each quarter mile. Secretariat ran each Derby fraction in faster time.
Triple Crown Snapshot Series: Secretariat
TC Champions: Rankings
In the previous century, many thoroughbreds have amazed their fans. Kelso was five times Horse of the Year in the 1960s. In the '90s, Cigar became the first to equal 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation's streak of sixteen consecutive wins.
After the turn of the century, Man o' War was the be all and end all of American thoroughbreds, beaten just once in 21 races, and that from a faulty start. There were no starting gates in Man o' War's time. Races began with a fairly coordinated lineup and the drop of the flag, or the burst of gunfire.
There is one feat, a single performance, in thoroughbred history that has never been matched. It happened on Kentucky Derby day, the first Saturday in May, 1973. Man o' War was the hero of the past. The new Big Red boy on the block was Secretariat.
At Churchill Downs, Secretariat scorched the field in 1:59-2/5, a 2-1/2 length victory in all time record speed for the 1-1/4 mile Kentucky Derby. His speed remains unequaled.
That was the result of the race. The feat was Secretariat's quarter mile fractions run in times each faster than the one before. Thoroughbreds, normal ones, that is, don't increase their speed in each quarter mile run. Their speed begins to decrease, fractionally, as they pass each quarter pole.
One fraction equals the speed of one quarter mile raced. Running a fraction in twenty-three seconds, or :23, is flying. Secretariat's fractions in the five quarters of the 1-1/4 mile Derby were: :25-1/5, a good start; then, :24 flat, faster in the second quarter mile and a speedy :49-1/5 half mile total; :23-4/5 in the third quarter mile, faster than each of the first two; :23-2/5 in the fourth quarter mile, faster yet; and an astonishing :23 flat in the last quarter mile. His final quarter mile was his fastest; he was a blur at the finish line.
No thoroughbred in history, anywhere recorded, has accomplished Secretariat's feat of increasing the speed of each quarter mile fraction in a single race. In the 1-1/4 mile Kentucky Derby, run by three-year-olds only, thoroughbreds many times face this distance for the first time. Secretariat gobbled it up and spit it out and looked at the crowd like he was thinking: "What else you got for me?"
Man o' War is ranked by The Blood-Horse magazine as the No.1 thoroughbred of the 20th century. But that Big Red never ran in Kentucky. His owners declined to run him there. Although Man o' War won the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, his performances don't match up to Secretariat's.
Winning the Derby, Preakness, and the Belmont in unrelenting fashion cast Secretariat as one of the greatest thoroughbreds in history (ranked No.2 by Blood-Horse), and certainly tops among the elite eleven to conquer this trio of races known as the American Triple Crown.
Penny Chenery's Big Red flew to record times in the Triple. His Preakness record is still disputed due to a faulty timing clock incident. Otherwise, Secretariat would hold the speed records in all three Triple Crown races. As things stand, his Derby and his Belmont record times remain untouched.
Records are made to be broken is the old sports adage. But it boggles the mind to think that a new thoroughbred could even approach a dash in the Derby that would put Secretariat's quarter mile fractions to rest.
It was an awesome feat. And then there was his Belmont...
