‘The Dream Is Over’ : Charismatic Secretariat Is Dead

The charismatic Secretariat, one of the greatest race horses in history whose 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes in 1973 gave America its first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, was humanely destroyed today.

“Of course, I’m terribly sorry to lose an old friend,” said Helen Chenery, his owner. “As long as he was alive, his memories had more immediacy.

“The dream is over.”

Secretariat, who was 19, had an incurable condition known as Laminitis, which is an inflammation of the inside of the hoof. He was put down at 11:45 a.m. at Claiborne Farm in Paris, where he stood at stud, said Gus Koch, the farm’s assistant manager.

Koch said Secretariat’s condition “rapidly worsened” on Tuesday, putting the chestnut stallion in “extreme pain for the first time.”

Secretariat was buried at the farm today, close to stablemate Riva Ridge, who won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Secretariat became the “people’s horse” when he won the Triple Crown. Hailed as one of the track’s all-time greats, he not only set records in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, but many also said he would have broken the Preakness mark if the Pimlico timing hadn’t malfunctioned.

Not since Citation won the Triple Crown in 1948 had any horse managed to win all three races, let alone do it in the style of Secretariat. There were Omaha, War Admiral and Whirlaway, all winners of the Triple Crown. There was Man o’ War, whom some consider the best of all time, and there were the great handicap champions like John Henry and Forego.

But somehow, Secretariat stood alone.

“Maybe he was not the world’s greatest racehorse,” Chenery said, “but he was a charismatic person.”

Secretariat won 16 of 21 races in two years and had stood at stud at Claiborne Farm since retiring.

“We are very saddened,” Koch said. “He was a very special horse to us and to everybody in the horse business and the public. He had fans from coast to coast.

“He had a whole lot of personality and he will be missed.”

But “Red,” as the Claiborne farmhands referred to the burnished chestnut, was something of a disappointment in the breeding shed, even though he got 85% of his mares in foal and managed to be No. 25 among leading active sires.

A good sire, not a great one.

“Everybody still wants him to duplicate himself, and I just don’t think that will happen,” John Sosby, manager of Claiborne Farm, had said. “I hope he lives long enough that we will see that.”

Of course, how often can a horse win the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths? How often can he run the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5?

Secretariat did those things and more, winning Horse of the Year honors at ages 2 and 3.

Seattle Slew and Affirmed swept the Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont a few years later, but Secretariat was the horse the people remembered. A dozen years after he left the track, people still trekked to Kentucky to see racing’s star attraction.