Secratariat; Elmont, NY, USA
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| Secretariat's statue at Belmont Park has a history almost as amazing as the horse's abilities. New York Times photo |
This is the first horse memorial that I've covered in the blog. That probably betrays a bias of mine. I'm a dog person. Don't get me wrong, I like horses and even spent some time at a racetrack with a friend who owned horses. But these weren't the animals I was thinking of when I decided to write this blog. Now I'm realizing that they're an important and interesting part of the questions that really drive what I'm doing here at Herding Bronze Cats.
Memorials to horses, specifically racehorses, are among the oldest animal memorials that I have found in my research. The animal memorials that I've generally seen as I've explored this subject are recent, largely created in the past twenty-five years. But there are some that date back to the Nineteenth Century, generally graves, and many of those are dedicated to racehorses. Kentucky is especially rich in racing culture, and it's home to many of these graves, which often reside at the stable where the horse lived out its life. The state is also dotted with statues commemorating exceptional horses. These were animals who were American celebrities before Hollywood culture existed. Someday I'll make the pilgrimage to Kentucky to document some of these sites.
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| Secretariat was nicknamed Big Red. NRMHF Photo |
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| Jockey Ron Turcotte takes a moment to look back at the competition before winning. NRMHF photo |
Today my thoughts are in Elmont New York with Justify and the other racers. As they prepare for the race their thoughts might be on the statue conspicuously displayed in the paddock, Secretariat raced in 1972 and 1973. He won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 1973, becoming the first Triple Crown winner in twenty five years. Amazingly he won all three races in record-setting time. He beat the two minute mark in the Derby, a feat never before or since accomplished. He finished at Belmont with a time of 2:25.0. Don't expect to see that kind of time today. Secretariat beat the horses he raced against by a sixteenth of a mile on a mile and a half track. No horse has come close to that; its about 10 lengths faster than American Pharaoh's impressive run in 2015. Check out this article at FiveThirtyEight if you're into the stats of racing. For my purposes here, suffice it to say that Secretariat was truly a superhorse among superhorses. He even made Sports Illustrated's top athletes of the century. Ranked at number 35, he beat out sports legends like Micky Mantle, O.J. Simpson, and Pete Sampras. Secretariat lived out his life as a stud, and he sired 663 foals including horse of the year (1986), Lady's Secret and Risen Star,1989 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner. Secretariat died October 4, 1989.
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| Secretariat and Turcotte after the big win. NRMHF photo |
At the site of his crowing glory, Belmont Park, Secretariat was honored with a statue. It isn't the only statue of Secretariat in the U.S., and there's even one in New Brunswick Canada where Secretariat's wining jockey, Ron Turcotte, was born. Artist, John Skeaping crafted the bronze in 1974 (the year after Secretariat's victory) for the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. The statue was displayed in Belmont Park's paddock, where it was visible by racers preparing in the saddling area. The base on which the statue stood noted its ownership, "Gift of Paul Mellon to the National Museum of Racing, Saratoga." In 1988 the lease on the statue ended and the National Racing Museum moved it to their headquarters in Saratoga. Skeaping created a copy for Belmont Park, While there had been other Triple Crown winners in the intervening years, Secretariat's times were still unmatched, and it was time to move him to a place of honor.
In 2009 the new Belmont statue was involved in an unfortunate incident about two weeks before the running of the Belmont Stakes. A four-year-old colt named City on the Line spooked while entering the racetrack. He reared and unseated his jockey, then turned and charged back into the paddock. The horse slammed himself into the base of the Secretariat statue, sustaining serious injuries. He was euthanized in short order. City on the Line hit with such force that the marble base was severly damaged by the impact. The statue itself fell from its pedestal, but was relatively unharmed. The horse world was shocked, but the news didn't seem to make the front page outside of New York. I've been surprised how few people I mentioned this incident to remember it.
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| The 1988 statue was temporary placed on this wooden base from May 2009 to Oct. 2010. Brooklyn Backstretch photo |
The statue was repaired and placed atop a simple wooden platform where it rested for about a year. The new base was installed after the 2010 Stakes. Proctor Marble Company carefully (there are 547 carved and gilded letters) crafted a new base to replicate the one destroyed.
Please let me know in the comments what your favorite racehorse memorial is. There are so many that I want to look at and I don't really have a handle on which ones I want to write about yet so your input is really appreciated. Have fun watching the Stakes today. Wish good fortune and safe racing to all the horses and jockeys.
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| The original statue at the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. NRMHF photo. |
National Racing Hall of Fame Entry
New York Daily News Article on Accident
538 Article on Secretariat's Stats
Archived NYT Article
ESPN Article
ESPN list of Athletes
Brooklyn Backstretch Article on the Statue
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