Deseret News archives: Everyone loves a Triple Crown winner, and Secretariat was the greatest
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
For hardcore horse racing fans, the first Saturday in May means Kentucky Derby week, but it’s technically the middle of the racing season.
For the rest of us, it might be the only time we think about thoroughbred racing. Unless one horse is able to win the Triple Crown.
On May 5, 1973, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories, in a time of 1:59.4, a record that still stands. He is still considered the greatest racehorse of all time.
Once a 3-year-old wins the Derby at Churchill Downs in Kentucky, he has a chance to race in the Preakness Stakes at the end of the month at Pimlico in Maryland, and with a win there, at the Belmont Stakes at Elmont, New York, in June.
Only 14 horses have won the Triple Crown in history, and just four have accomplished the feat since Secretariat.
And once the Derby winner falters, interest in the other two races drops.
Secretariat has had the movie treatment and has received adoration from fans and collectors. Some will debate whether Secretariat is the greatest, but the numbers make a strong case.
Big Red was retired to stud in 1974, and died at age 19 in 1989.
Who knows what this year’s Derby winner — Mystik Dan — will do, or how he’ll be remembered. But at least for a few weeks, the Triple Crown dream is alive and well.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a dramatic three-horse photo finish, edging out Sierra Leone and Forever Young for the upset victory. It was the 10th Derby to be decided by a nose, the closest margin in horse racing.
Of note, a Utah-trained female horse named Where’s My Ring competed in the 150th running of the Kentucky Oaks on Friday. The filly had started her racing career at the Washington County Equestrian Center in St. George and had previously defeated all the other entries in the Oaks field on dry tracks, according to KSL.com.
But Friday’s track was wet, and Where’s My Ring finished 10th.
