fifty years on, secretariat looms large in kentucky derby pedigrees

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patricia mcqueen, secretariat

Fifty years ago, the hottest topic in racing, as well as the subject of numerous comments and rumors from Las Vegas odds-maker Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, was Secretariat, the son of 1957 Horse of the Year Bold Ruler who had been named the 1972 Horse of the Year following his sterling juvenile campaign.

Coming into his 3-year-old season, Secretariat had been syndicated by Seth Hancock to stand at Claiborne Farm for a record sum of $6.08 million. The syndication was for breeding purposes only, and the reason for the timing in between seasons was to help satisfy the massive inheritance taxes that had become due after the death of Meadow Stud founder Christopher Chenery.

The chestnut champion opened his 3-year-old season with a smooth success in the Bay Shore Stakes, then followed with a track-record victory in the Gotham Stakes. In the latter, Secretariat had shown a different dimension, taking command of the race much earlier than in the past and cruising to a powerful win.

Then, Secretariat ran a stinker in the Wood Memorial, finishing third behind his stablemate Angle Light (Quadrangle) and archrival Sham (Pretense). It was the first time that Secretariat had finished behind an opponent since his debut, and it was the first time the champion had raced nine furlongs.

Secretariat’s pedigree contains many of the most famous sires and dams of the 20th century and earlier, as well as an outlier or two. Caruso, anyone?

All the cliches about “Bold Rulers can’t go that far” came into heavy use as soon as Secretariat passed the finish, and with three weeks to ponder the situation before the Derby, Secretariat’s doubters came out in full force. In fairness, only eight years prior, another champion chestnut by Bold Ruler, the American-bred Bold Lad, had finished third in the Wood before going to Churchill Downs and winning the Derby Trial at a mile. Then he finished unplaced in the main event.

The gut-churning possibilities for those most closely connected to Secretariat were obvious, but those handling the colt, rider Ron Turcotte and trainer Lucien Laurin, remained stoic against the winds of rumor. The colt trained beautifully, even exceptionally, at the Downs in preparation for the Kentucky classic.

On the day, the sun shone brightly on the Kentucky Derby, and Secretariat shone even brighter. The doubts and skepticism were thrown aside and reams of praise were spun on the colt’s behalf. The result seemed even more impressive as the newly minted “superhorse” came from off the pace to win in stakes and track record time over Sham and Our Native, with future multiple Horse of the Year Forego in fourth place.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of that record performance, it is worth noting that two sires born in 1970 feature in the pedigrees of every American-bred Kentucky Derby contender. Mr. Prospector (Raise a Native) will not be a surprise, but Secretariat is the other.

Despite the rumor that Secretariat was not a successful sire, his presence is essential in modern pedigrees, and typically, the 1973 Triple Crown winner is found not once in pedigrees but twice or three times, just like his exact contemporary. They are the two youngest sires found in all these pedigrees, although a younger pair (Deputy Minister 1979 and Unbridled 1987) are bidding to join them.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown, there is a new book available that focuses solely on the champion and his offspring, and particularly on their continuing contribution to the breed. Patricia McQueen (SECRETARIAT’S LEGACY BOOK | Patricia McQueen) has produced a gorgeously photographed volume of coffee-table dimensions that documents the sons and daughters of Secretariat and their descendants.

A journalist whose work in prose and pictures has been widely featured around the world, McQueen has traveled across the country and around the globe to report on and photograph the sons and daughters of Secretariat, in particular. Her book records not only the champions and memorable stakes winners by Secretariat but also the stallion’s most noteworthy producers. Will statistics and lists of stakes winners and producers, this volume adds a significant chapter to the library of serious literature about racing and Secretariat, in particular.

McQueen’s commentary takes us from Secretariat’s first Group 1 winner in England, Dactylographer, through Horse of the Year Lady’s Secret and on to classic winner Risen Star. There are lovely color photo reproductions of these and other noteworthy racers, as well as horses who did not find themselves in the headlines.

Secretariat, in particular, remains vibrant in pedigrees through the excellence of his producing daughters Terlingua (Storm Cat), Secrettame (Gone West), and Weekend Surprise (A.P. Indy and Summer Squall), but there are a surprising number of other branches of transmission for Secretariat’s athleticism and beauty.

As we enter the intense excitement of the Triple Crown, it is a pleasure to look back on these great memories and the horses who carry on a genetic legacy through the deeds of our current classic performers.

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secretariat: fifty years ago

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bold ruler, Kentucky Derby, secretariat

If you recall opening an issue of the weekly Thoroughbred Record dated March 24, 1973 and reading that 1972 champion Secretariat had made a successful debut to his 3-year-old season with a come-from-behind victory in the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct, probably the only surprise in the recollection is that it was 50 years ago.

There are cliches that express the swiftness of time, the ease of its passing, and that sort of thing. They are dull expressions, however, and much less effective than the sharp wonder and kindling joy that the chestnut son of Bold Ruler produced in millions of people. That was half a century past, and yet time has done little to dull the enlivening sensation of that time, that colt, and the things we shared as he progressed toward the Triple Crown, then won it, and, amidst the adulation that followed, somehow found greater heights of accomplishment to test and attain.

This story, so fabled and fabulous, wasn’t supposed to be, actually. The tale of Secretariat’s accomplishment is too improbable. The best-looking colt, the death of the elderly breeder, the need for cash to settle estate taxes. The looming fears that something could go wrong and let everyone down, when that’s normally what happens, in racing and in life, amid the hopes that this time, the dream would come true. It’s a tale too far. Screenwriters and producers in Hollywood would never believe it.

Secretariat’s record-price syndication for $6,080,000 was an indication of the depth of the hopes surrounding this colt in spite of the fear of the unknown. In the racing program set out before him, Secretariat was physically challenging accepted reasoning, first that a son of Bold Ruler could win at 10 furlongs and second that any colt, no matter the sire, could win the Triple Crown again, after the most enthralling accomplishment of the turf had lain dormant for 25 years.

The worries about the colt’s pedigree were real and well-justified. Nearly all the Bold Rulers were milers; he himself had been an exceptional seven- to nine-furlong racer who handled 10 on sheer speed and class. Nearly all of Bold Ruler’s many gifted offspring wanted a mile, were taxed when raced much beyond that, and few had won important 10-furlong stakes.

Even champion Bold Lad (the best Bold Ruler prior to Secretariat and the one most like him in appearance and pedigree) had failed to handle 10 furlongs, or even nine furlongs, as Bold Lad had finished third in the 1965 Wood Memorial. In 1972, Secretariat had towered over his contemporaries for talent, and as a result of his dominance among juvenile colts, he was elected Horse of the Year, not an honor normally given to first-season racers. As a result of all the known information, Secretariat’s potential for winning the Derby was genuine, but the chance that it could fall flat was every bit as evident. That Seth Hancock could syndicate the colt in a day, before Secretariat had even started at 3, talking to professionals who knew the risks, is a testament to understanding the challenge and taking it because those involved believed.

They thought there was something special about this colt by Bold Ruler out of the grand producer Somethingroyal, and they were correct. The assumption of greatness, however, did not come to Secretariat and the people who believed in him through a series of empty blows.

There were challenges at every step of the quest that led from the colt’s seasonal debut in the seven-furlong Bay Shore to the graduation to a mile in the Gotham, the test of nine furlongs (longer than Secretariat had raced at 2), the immense uncertainty of the 10 furlongs on the First Saturday in May, the ability to step back a sixteenth for the Preakness in Baltimore, and then the highest hurdle of 12 furlongs in the Belmont Stakes that would be required to complete the Triple Crown.

The memories that come down like rain belie the distance in time of these events. Their clarity and the acuteness of the sensations they produced startles even me, because I, I remember.

(I would invite readers to post their own recollections, observations, photos, ideas, and suggestions because the memories of this horse and this time deserve our attention and careful reflection.)

advent of secretariat was momentous for the sport and its perception by the general public

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secretariat, sir gaylord, somethingroyal

Fifty-two years ago this week, a good-sized bay mare was heavy in foal. The mare was 18, and there are people who’ll tell you an older mare cannot produce a good foal.

Somethingroyal, however, was not your average mare. Already the dam of three stakes winners and a trio of stakes-placed racers, Somethingroyal put a lot into her foals, and the chestnut colt to be born on March 30 was her crowning glory.

The colt yet unborn was a full sibling to one of the mare’s previous stakes winners, three-time stakes winner Syrian Sea (Astarita, Selima, and Colleen), and expectations were high for a youngster from an 18-year-old mare and by a 16-year-old stallion by the name of Bold Ruler.

In addition to Syrian Sea, Somethingroyal already had produced Sir Gaylord (by Turn-to) and First Family, by Turn-to’s champion son First Landing.

Unlike First Landing, who won 10 of 11 races at two, Sir Gaylord won a half-dozen races, then was third in a quartet that sealed his fate as “one of the best” juveniles after third-place finishes in the Hopeful, Futurity (a neck and a head behind Cyane and Jaipur), Cowdin, and Champagne.

The juvenile season in 1961 had been topsy-turvy, with first one colt, then another, appearing the best. Crimson Satan had taken the championship with a victory in the Garden State Stakes, an extremely valuable end-of-season race that often determined the divisional champion in a manner similar to the contemporary Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Sir Gaylord, however, matured like a classic colt over the winter. He won each of his four races at three in 1962, defeating Crimson Satan, Ridan, Decidedly, and Jaipur, who won most of the major divisional events in 1962. By Kentucky Derby time, the dark bay was the morning line favorite for the classic at Churchill Downs.

In a half-mile work on the morning before the Derby, the son of Turn-to came up with a hairline fracture of the right front sesamoid and was scratched from the big event. Sir Gaylord never raced again but went to stud at Claiborne Farm. From his second crop, he sired Sir Ivor, winner of the 1968 2,000 Guineas and English Derby, and from his third crop came Habitat, who was the top miler in Europe of 1969. Both became top international sires.

Although closely related, being by Turn-to’s son First Landing, First Family was not as good a racer as Sir Gaylord. First Family won four stakes at three and four, including the Gulfstream Park Handicap, which was a Grade 1 race for many years. The colt also had four placings in stakes, including the 1965 Belmont Stakes.

Eight years later, Somethingroyal’s most famous offspring won the 1973 Belmont Stakes in record time by 31 lengths to take the first Triple Crown in 25 years, and Secretariat went down in history as one of the greatest Thoroughbreds in the history of the breed.

The Great One was foaled on March 30, 1970, and 50 years ago, in the spring of 1972, the striking chestnut that Penny Chenery labelled her “Wow” horse was a 2-year-old in training who had plenty left to prove. As Timothy T. Capps wrote in his volume on Secretariat, “the steady improvement in his morning workout times came more as a relief … than a revelation.”

The revelations were yet to come, and the flashy colt who raised pulses with his looks alone lost his first start in a very eventful introduction to his sporting career. For the rest of his juvenile season, however, Secretariat conceded lengths to the opposition in the early running, then swept by them later, moving like a god on hooves.

Before long, Secretariat became his dam’s fourth stakes winner. Then he developed into her most distinguished racer, and before his career was over, Secretariat had become a legend.

Racing in 1972 and 1973 during the grim days of Watergate and Viet Nam, the glorious golden colt offered a lift to the spirits of racing fans, and then that sense of amazement and exhilaration spread to millions of people who never before had watched a race or made a bet.

Secretariat was a gift to the sport, one that was not wholly squandered. Both the sponsorship of major races began seriously to increase, and the availability of national television coverage for the sport improved and set the stage for the wide visibility of Forego, Ruffian, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, and Alydar, as well as Spectacular Bid.

All this began with the simple foaling of a chestnut colt from a bay mare on a pretty farm in Virginia.

union rags continues a family tradition with belmont success

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Belmont Stakes, classic breeding, dixie union, lane's end, nijinsky, phyllis wyeth, Seattle Slew, secretariat, Triple Crown, union rags

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The game victory by Union Rags in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes was also a triumph for the classic approach: to breeding, to pedigree, to training, and to character. In the end, Union Rags wanted the victory more, and he earned it.

And as some very knowledgeable breeders have told me, when looking down that long, long stretch at Belmont Park (or Churchill Downs, for that matter), it’s always a good thing for a racehorse to have some serious classic ancestors to help get him home.

Not surprisingly, then, the pedigree of Union Rags is littered with classic winners, including Northern Dancer, Native Dancer, Nashua, Bold Ruler, and Hyperion, as well as several Triple Crown winners. Two of the three last American Triple Crown winners, Secretariat and Seattle Slew, are in the colt’s fourth generation.

They descend through Secretariat’s stakes-winning daughter Secrettame, dam of Gone West, who is the broodmare sire of Union Rags, and through Seattle Slew’s champion son Capote, who is the broodmare sire of Dixie Union, the sire of the Belmont Stakes winner.

Now a G1 winner at 2 (Champagne) and a classic winner at 3, Union Rags is the most acclaimed son of Dixie Union, who spent nearly all of his stud career at Lane’s End Farm (he entered stud at the Diamond A Farm of his owner, Gerald Ford). The stallion’s classic success this year has a bittersweet quality because Dixie Union was euthanized on July 14, 2010, due to a “deteriorating neurologic problem.”

Winner of the G1 Haskell and Malibu at 3, Dixie Union was arguably the most talented son of his sire, the Northern Dancer horse Dixieland Band, who was central to the transformation of Lane’s End into a powerhouse operation for developing and standing stallions. Logically, then, the farm would have been highly motivated to stand a very good son of Dixieland Band, and Dixie Union had the further recommendations of being uncommonly good-looking, strong, correct, and fast.

Dixie Union had shown the level of his speed by maturing early enough at 2 to win the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and then carried his speed to win the Norfolk Stakes later that season.

The sire passed on his early maturity and high class to Union Rags, who won his début going five furlongs last July, then followed up with a victory in the Saratoga Special and the Champagne Stakes. Union Rags also resembles his sire in being very strong and very robustly made.

The physical stoutness derives from both sides of the Belmont winner’s pedigree. Although his broodmare sire Gone West was more medium-sized, he sometimes sired quite large foals, and the second dam of Union Rags is the rugged distance-racing mare Terpsichorist, who is a daughter of English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky.

The latter was a magnificently muscled beast who was able to defeat the fastest juveniles in sprints, then developed into a classic winner able to crush his competition from a mile to more than a mile and three-quarters.

That versatility seems part of the reason that Union Rags has found success in five of his eight races, along with his courage and athleticism.

A homebred for Phyllis Wyeth’s Chadds Ford Stable who was sold, then repurchased, Union Rags has proven a landmark in a family that has rewarded Wyeth’s family over the generations.

At the Hickory Tree Farm of Wyeth’s parents, James and Alice Mills, they raised some fine Thoroughbreds, including Terpsichorist and her highly regarded full brother, Gorytus. Both were out of the 1,000 Guineas winner Glad Rags, whom Mrs. Mills had purchased and then raced with great success.

In fact, Glad Rags became one of the foundation mares of the Hickory Tree program, and the stable also raced such outstanding horses as Gone West and champion juvenile Devil’s Bag.

Mrs. Mills bred both Terpsichorist and her daughter Tempo, who is the dam of Union Rags. As the last mare out of her mother’s grand chestnut daughter of Nijinsky, Tempo held a special significance for Wyeth, who had hoped that Union Rags would be a filly when he was foaled in Kentucky more than three years ago at the Royal Oak Farm of Braxton and Damian Lynch.

Although Union Rags was not the hoped-for filly, he has proven a splendid colt in physique and racing class.

In generosity of spirit and in his willingness to keep on trying, Union Rags has emulated the qualities of his owner-breeder. She pensioned the colt’s dam after his birth because the mare had had a difficult foaling in a previous year, and she did not wish to further risk the mare’s health and well-being.

Blessed by that concern for her animal’s welfare, Wyeth has been richly rewarded as her pride and joy rallied down the stretch at Belmont to add another classic to a rich family tradition.

awesome feather adds to the grand record of her ancestors

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champion fillies, frank stronach, greentree stable, history of racing, lucien laurin, quill, reginald webster, secretariat

The post below first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

With her victory in the Grade 1 Gazelle at Aqueduct racetrack on Saturday, champion Awesome Feather came home a winner for the eighth time in as many starts. A filly of considerable elegance and quality, Awesome Feather was voted last season’s Eclipse Award winner as the top juvenile filly when unbeaten in six starts.

Shortly after her victory in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs, the bay filly was sold at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale for $2.3 million to Frank Stronach, who stands the filly’s grandsire, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Awesome Again, at Adena Springs in Kentucky.

Not long after the sale, however, the filly was diagnosed with a soft-tissue injury in a foreleg and had been on the sidelines mending and then regaining condition until returning last month with a victory in the Le Slew Stakes at Belmont.

Now Stronach’s patience with his prize acquisition has paid off with a G1 victory that suggests Awesome Feather will be a heavyweight among the older fillies in the coming months. And there is every indication that Awesome Feather will continue to race and to captivate fans, which is a lovely, old-fashioned thing for a racehorse to do.

This filly, a champion at 2 and G1 winner at 3, has a career that is markedly similar to that of her great-granddam Quill (by Princequillo). A homebred who raced for Reginald Webster and who was the champion 2-year-old filly of 1958, Quill won six of her starts at 2, like her famous descendant, but was not undefeated. She also finished third in the Spinaway and Schuylerville, but the filly’s victories included the Matron at Belmont and the Gardenia. The latter stakes was the filly companion to the Garden State Stakes, both run at Garden State Park, and they were the two very rich stakes that served as the juvenile championship finales of the 1950s and 1960s, much as the Breeders’ Cup races are intended to do now.

And further like Awesome Feather, Quill had a greatly abbreviated second season at the races. The chestnut daughter of Princequillo and the Count Fleet mare Quick Touch raced five times in eight weeks in 1959, winning the Acorn and Mother Goose impressively.

Quill then was a game second in the Coaching Club American Oaks but finished fifth in her fifth start of the year, the Delaware Oaks. She was having “ankle trouble,” and owner Webster and trainer Lucien Laurin, later the trainer of Secretariat and Riva Ridge, gave her time off to recuperate.

Her brief campaign knocked out Quill’s championship opportunities in 1959, and at the season’s end, she was ranked behind four other fillies, including Monmouth Oaks winner Royal Native, Santa Anita Derby winner Silver Spoon, and CCA Oaks winner Resaca. In the championship voting, the Daily Racing Form put Royal Native on top; the Thoroughbred Racing Association poll gave Silver Spoon priority.

After recuperating at Laurin’s Holly Hill training center in South Carolina, Quill returned to racing in 1960, and she made seven starts before her tender ankle sent her to the sidelines again. But while she was good, Quill won four races and ran second in the other three. Her most important victories were the New Castle Stakes and the Delaware Handicap, which was the richest race of the time for fillies and mares.

In the Delaware Handicap, Quill blew away her competition, winning by nine lengths from Royal Native. Quill made only one more start at 4, ended her season in August, and was ranked second to Royal Native in the year-end polls.

The good-looking daughter of Princequillo came back to the races at 5, but even Laurin’s conditioning couldn’t return her to top form. As a producer, Quill became a world-class broodmare, with three high-class stakes winners: One for All (Northern Dancer) won the Sunset Handicap and Canadian International Championship; Caucasus (Nijinsky) won the Irish St. Leger, Sunset, and Manhattan; and Last Feather (Vaguely Noble) won the Musidora Stakes and was third in the English Oaks.

Quill’s first foal was called First Feather, and for Paul Mellon’s Rokeby Stables, she produced stakes winners Run the Gantlet (Garden State Stakes and D.C. International), Head of the River (Everglades), and Music of Time (Jim Dandy).

Quill’s last foal was the aformentioned stakes winner Last Feather, and she produced a pair of stakes winners: Ruznama (Forty Niner) and Precious Feather (Gone West).

The latter is the dam of Awesome Feather, and Precious Feather was a very nice mare to send to the little-known stallion Awesome of Course, a stakes-winning son of Awesome Again standing in Florida for his owner-breeder Jacks or Better Farm. [The horse now stands near Ocala at Brent and Crystal Fernung’s Journeyman Stud.]

Fred and Jane Brei, however, had purchased mares to support Awesome of Course, and, after sending Precious Feather to their stallion, were rewarded with Awesome Feather, the best filly from this family since champion Quill.

secretariat dreamin’

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anniversaries, belmont, bold ruler, champagne, dust commander, form on off tracks, general assembly, high echelon, Kentucky Derby, Preakness, secretariat, somethingroyal, spectacular bid, track surfaces, Triple Crown

The anniversary of the birth of the great chestnut son of Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal prompted some imagining, some wondering about what might have been.

If Secretariat’s high-class second-crop son General Assembly had caught muddy or sloppy tracks in the Triple Crown, he might have turned the tables on Spectacular Bid. Now don’t get me wrong, you ‘Bid” lovers! I’m not suggesting that General Assembly was a better horse day in or day out. But he had the peculiar misfortune never to catch Bid when General Assembly was super, or at least as super as he was in the Travers he won by 15 lengths.

That day, Bid would have been in real trouble. Off their best form in the Champagne at 2 and the Kentucky Derby at 3, Spectacular Bid had only 2 or 3 lengths on General Assembly when the latter was near the top of his game. With an actual advantage, say slop or Saratoga, how could bid have held the flying chestnut son of Secretariat?

Likewise, I pondered and discussed with a likewise facetious comrade, what might have happened if General Assembly had come across Triple Crown races similar to those of 1970, when Dust Commander splashed home in the Kentucky Derby and High Echelon won an even wetter Belmont that was slower than death.

At the very least, it would have pushed Spectacular Bid to reach down for ability and amaze us with even more speed.

was secretariat the most important sire of the last 40 years?

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20 top sires in the fourth generation, a.p. indy, bloodstock statistics, bold ruler, boojum's bonanza, gone west, influence of stallions, performance of stallions, secretariat, stallion statistics, statistics as a tool in evaluating stallions, storm cat, success and influence

By one way of looking at the impact of horses, particularly stallions, the answer is “yes.” The tremendous number-crunching machine over at “Boojum’s Bonanza” has evaluated the 20 most successful stallions in the fourth generation of pedigrees in terms of their sales value and racetrack success, and Secretariat (known more humbly as “His Chestnut Perfection”) was top of the tree. Read more here.

The Boojum wrote: “Secretariat had the highest prices of all 20 sires in the fourth generation, was expected to have the best results, and did have the best results overall. And his results (1.36) were even higher than his prices (1.21). His daughters were better than his sons (no surprise at all there), but his sons were not bad.”

Does that mean that Secretariat was actually as great a sire as he was a racehorse?

Well, purely in terms of his offspring’s results on the racetrack, the answer is “no.” But in terms of lasting success and continuing impact on the breed, the answer is much more in the positive category.

The difference between the great horse’s performance on the racetrack and his results as a sire of racehorses is a puzzle that has fascinated legions of Secretariat fans (and I am one of them and not the least of that number).

That Secretariat’s sons and his daughters both fared well in this study is very interesting. Most of us have become accustomed to thinking of the great chestnut son of Bold Ruler as a massively important broodmare sire, but his other avenues of influence should be considered as well.

And as the broodmare sire of Storm Cat, Gone West, and AP Indy, Secretariat’s contributions to the breed will linger yet a while.

secretariat’s physique, per charlie hatton

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action in thoroughbreds, boojum's bonanza, charlie hatton, Daily Racing Form, function of the hindquarter, proportions of the hindleg of the horse, racehorse conformation, secretariat

The noted teller of tales and watcher of racehorses, Charlie Hatton, penned a column at the Daily Racing Form for decades, and he also wrote many of the individual essays about champion racehorses for the American Racing Manual over the years.

At the end of his career, he watched the development and continued success of a chestnut colt by the name of Secretariat.

Hatton was, with reason, one of the colt’s most ardent fans, and he also wrote the profiles of the champion son of Bold Ruler for the ARM in 1972 and 1973. The first of these is reprinted, in excerpted form, at Boojum’s Bonanza here.

Now as a rival admirer of His Chestnut Perfection, I could not pass the opportunity to read and to comment on the ruminations of Brother Hatton.

One of Hatton’s observations was the construction of Secretariat’s hindquarters and the horse’s action at a gallop and at the walk. He wrote:

The pelvis is exceedingly sloping, however, giving him a vaguely goose-rumped aspect at first glance. This is a characteristic of the Nearcos, including his classicists, though horsemen used to consider it the mark of a sprinter. The flag is set on low, accentuating the precipitate droop of the quarters.

Here again, as in the shoulder, a particularly desirable point rescues him, for below the pelvis is a massive and very low stifle joint, extending into gaskins muscled right into the hock in the straightest hind legs seen in years.

This construction comes to a sort of scooting action behind. He gets his hind parts far under himself in action, and the drive of his hind legs is tremendous, as he follows through like a golfer.

Ribot went in this fashion, and that wire-hung filly Top Flight, whose stifles were set on singularly low. Rather long, springy pasterns and legs like a deer’s combined with a gorgeous forehand to give her stealthy action.

Walking off after a race, Secretariat divulges nothing of his extended action. He goes frightfully short behind, like so many Princequillos, and wide in front, like most the Bold Rulers. At a glance, one might suspect he had bucked.

Hatton’s last comment was not intended as humor, I believe. But Secretariat kept that rather choppy shuffling action all his life, and it is worth pondering because this is the opposite of the extensive and elastic reach so preferred today in the sales rings.

It is also worth wondering how greatly his action behind and in front would be penalized by evaluators of yearlings and 2yos today, which would like him and which would not. And would the perceptions of his walk and motion have kept the horse from becoming a Triple Crown winner and two-time Horse of the Year?

ap indy center stage as sire of classic sires

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a.p. indy, allen paulson, bernardini, bold ruler, congrats, daring bidder, dialed in, dinard, diversity in breeding, eliza, gulfstream park, holy bull stakes, male lines in thoroughbred breeding, malibu moon, mineshaft, nasrullah, Pulpit, quality and stamina in racing, Seattle Slew, secretariat, storm cat, Tapit, weekend surprise

The following post was published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Everywhere you look, it’s coming up Indys. And at Gulfstream Park on Sunday, the first two places in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes were filled by Dialed In (by Mineshaft) and Sweet Ducky (Pulpit). Both are grandsons of classic winner and champion A.P. Indy, the 22-year-old son of Seattle Slew and the Secretariat mare Weekend Surprise.

Nor are Dialed In and Sweet Ducky a rarity. Day after day and week after week, sons and grandsons of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy are filling the winner’s circles of major races across the country.

And whether we think of this as the Nasrullah/Bold Ruler line or the Bold Reasoning/Seattle Slew line through A.P. Indy, the reestablishment of this male line as a major influence has been one of the important developments in breeding over the past decade and a half.

Part of this importance comes from the fact that about the time A.P. Indy became a fledgling sire of stallions, much comment was being made about how the lines of Raise a Native (especially through Mr. Prospector and Alydar) and Northern Dancer (especially through Storm Cat) were going to swamp all their competition and about how the breed would be poorer for the lack of diversity.

Then along came the tide of success that has propelled A.P. Indy to this pinnacle today.

Part of the manner of that continuing success has come from the outstanding match that A.P. Indy proved with Mr. Prospector, who is the broodmare sire of both Mineshaft and Pulpit.

And A.P. Indy (and his sons, in particular) have proven to be excellent crosses with other important lines. For instance, Dialed In is out of the mare Miss Doolittle, who is by none other than Storm Cat.

And whereas Storm Cat’s sons ruled the waves in volume over the past decade and a half, how many are still viable at the top level? Certainly Giant’s Causeway is the heir to his sire’s legacy on many fronts. And then … there is Tale of the Cat. And without being negative about it, the Storm Cat wave of influence has followed the pattern of all those that have come before it: strengthening, cresting, then flattening out.

That is the pattern already followed by the Bold Ruler branch of the Nasrullah line. First the sire, then the son seemed all powerful. And in the 1970s, the only male line that seemed to figure was Bold Ruler, except for that little matter of Raise a Native (Mr. Prospector, Alydar, Exclusive Native, Affirmed, and so forth) and then Northern Dancer (Nijinsky, Danzig, Nureyev, and, abroad, Sadler’s Wells).

The male-line influences come and go, mostly being integrated into the inner workings of pedigrees and being none the less important for that.

But the full force of A.P. Indy’s rise is expanding. First Pulpit, then Malibu Moon, and recently Pulpit’s son Tapit have put the A.P. Indy stock at the peak of success, and only last year the top freshman sire Congrats and the impressive new sire of classic prospects, Bernardini, are both sons of A.P. Indy.

Just as he did on the racecourse, A.P. Indy has answered every challenge with greater success.

His elegant and scopy son Mineshaft was much the same. Excelling in his Horse of the Year campaign at age 4, Mineshaft has sired racehorses with classic aptitude that come to hand in the spring of their 3-year-old season.

In Mineshaft’s first crop, he had Cool Coal Man, who won the Fountain of Youth, and in his third crop was Fly Down, who won the Peter Pan and ran second in the Belmont and Travers, then was third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. While most of Mineshaft’s stock shows its form at distances from eight to 12 furlongs, the stallion’s son Discreetly Mine won the King’s Bishop at Saratoga and has joined his sire at Lane’s End for the 2011 breeding season.

Dialed In won the Holy Bull at a mile, and the good-looking colt is out of the quick mare Miss Doolittle, a daughter of champion juvenile filly Eliza (by Mt. Livermore). Allen Paulson bred Eliza from the Bold Bidder mare Daring Bidder, who produced five other stakes horses. The mare’s other top-class performer was Santa Anita Derby winner Dinard (by Paulson’s Strawberry Road).

This family has tended toward speed, but when matched with the right balance of stamina, it can produce stock worthy to challenge for the classics.

 

secretariat the actor

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bold ruler, disney movie, history of breeding, history of sport, horse racing and film, secretariat

In the new movie Secretariat, the champion son of Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal is played in the film by five different critters.

Chief among these are Trolley’s Boy, the winner of the 2008 Secretariat Look-a-Like Contest at the Secretariat Festival, and Longshot Max, who came to this acting gig through the Secretariat.com casting call.

Trolley’s Boy is a 2004 model by the Gone West stallion Pembroke out of Paris Trolley, by Paristo. Trolley’s Boy was unraced but gets in some miles as the great champion on-screen.

Of some additional interest is the fact that Trolley’s Boy is a descendant of Secretariat. The movie horse’s grandsire, Gotham and Dwyer Stakes winner Gone West, is out of the Secretariat mare Secrettame. Winner of the Shirley Jones Handicap, Secrettame was a half-sister to major winners and sires Known Fact and Tentam.

Gone West was Secrettame’s first foal and her most important offspring, although the striking mare also produced stakes winners Lion Cavern and Lord Ultima. A leading stallion internationally and the sire of the important stallions Zafonic, Grand Slam, and Speightstown, Gone West came to the fore as a sire when maternal grandsons of Secretariat were taking the sire lists by storm. The other most prominent members of this club are Storm Cat and AP Indy.

Longshot Max, on the other hand, is not a direct descendant of Secretariat. But Longshot Max, an Oklahoma-bred 7-year-old by Regal Lancer out of Ima Lover, by Seattle Sun, does carry three lines of Bold Ruler and three lines of Princequillo in his pedigree.

Since His Chestnut Perfection was by Bold Ruler out of the Princequillo mare Somethingroyal, this pedigree repetition is, at least, amusing.Longshot Max also descends from Bold Ruler in the male line through Blade – Dee Lance – Regal Lancer.

On the racetrack, Longshot Max is as good as his name. From three starts, he has not placed, earning $220.

For more information about the making of Secretariat, visit this page at secretariat.com.