Here are my thoughts as to why I believe Secretariat deserves to be
chosen as "HORSE OF THE CENTURY". I sincerely believe he has earned the
title.

 Dear Secretariat Fans:
This e-mail is to clarify some facts about the greatest thoroughbred of
all times. Secretariat was proclaimed the greatest thoroughbred of all
times by no less than trainer Holly Hughes who saddled George Smith the
1916  KY  Derby winner. That was three years before Man o' War came
around so Mr. hughes had seen the two horses run and could compare
them.  He told me, even before we won the Belmont stakes by 31 lengths
that I was riding the greatest horse he had ever seen. Then there was
Sheryll Ward, Forego’s trainer who said after their fourth place finish
in the Derby that he wouldn't enter Forego in the Preakness. He said his
horse would never see that big Red Horse’s rear end again because he
wanted his horse to run in future races. He didn't want Forego breaking
himself down chasing Secretariat. He was proven right because Forgo went
on to win three Eclipse Awards for Horse of the year once Secretariat
was retired and out of the way. Now these men would have been qualified
to be on a panel to select who
should have been named Horse of the Century, not a few writers chosen by
A.P. or The Blood Horse magazine who may never have seen either horses
run, or some that had seen only a few of Secretariat's races when he was
sick.... I wonder how Man o' War would have fared on the Turf ?.....

Even after Secretariat was chosen " HORSE OF THE CENTURY"  in a survey
run by The Blood Horse, that same magazine went ahead and still declared
Man o' War as their selection for "HORSE OF THE CENTURY".

To say the least, I am very disappointed and a little confused, by the
fact that there are so many young and older sports writers  of our time
that are so reluctant to admit that the greatest Thoroughbred Race Horse
was in our time and not 80 years ago when the yearly crop was around 500
foals compared to over 25000 in 1973.
I know there is some jealousy around, but that it would go to this
extent really surprises me.

In all due respect to some  great horsemen I know and admire, Mr. John
Nerud and Mr. Jimmy Jones amongst them, I know that they have a right to
their own opinion, but I can't understand their continued insistence
that Secretariat could not run in the mud or on the turf and so on. The
only explanation I can come up with is that they are confusing
Secretariat with Riva Ridge because it is a fact that Riva Ridge could
not stand up in the mud. Riva couldn't handle the grass either, but on a
fast track he was second best of his time right after Big Red in my
book. He proved it in the Marlboro Cup.

When they say that Secretariat couldn't run in the mud, I guess they
forget that, as a two year old, he won the Laurel Futurity by 13 length
and only one fifth of the track record while being eased up on a very
sloppy track. They must also forget that he won the Bay Shore on a very
muddy and bad track on march 17 at Aqueduct in his first start as a 3
year old. Maybe they didn't see him win the Man o' War in his first
start on the Turf and set another new track record while beating the
champion turf horse Tentam who only a few weeks before had established a
new world record at Saratoga. In that race I was only playing cat and
mouse with  Tentam. I could have pulled away anytime I wanted to. They
must not have heard of, or read about the well documented Canadian
Championship in Toronto where where Eddie Maple rode him to a 6 lengths
victory over  Big Spruce. That was his final race, and it was run in a
downpour, and with the turf being knee deep after a week of rain,  and
all that against a 25 miles an hour wind. It was so bad that you could
hardly see the back stretch.

Now I will agree that his past performance will show 21 starts, 3
seconds, 1 third and 1 fourth.  He finish first in the Champagne Stake
but was placed second.
That race should count for a win, I truly feel that disqualification was
a disgrace.  I feel that way because the trouble in the race came from
the inside and pushed Stop the Music out against Secretariat's  rump and
turned him in slightly. I pulled him out as soon as his body got turned
in, just about pulling him up, and he still won pulling away. In my mind
that is 17 wins not 16.

Now let's start from his first race, and believe me I am not trying to
make excuses for the greatest horse ever.

In his first race he got knocked down leaving the gate and got knocked
into
the fence. Paul Feliciano was on him that day. At the time, Paul was
only an apprentice Jockey with very little experience. God Bless his
soul, for Paul is not with us anymore, but it was really a miracle how
that kid brought that horse back without as much as a scratch. He had no
place to go and was pulling him up all the way when a small space opened
up 70 yards from the wire and he got a chance to let him run a few
yards. He then had to pull him up again when he got boxed in behind the
winner and still only got beat by a length while finishing 4th. I had a
previous commitment to ride Summer Guest in the Monmouth Oaks that day
for Mr. Paul Mellon and trainer Elliot Burch. They were regular clients
of mine. Summer Guest was one of my regular mounts and a good one too.
We had just won the Black Eyed Susan and the Coaching Club American
Oaks.

Mr. Laurin was not too happy at me and let me know it when I returned to
the barn the next morning. So after I finished all my work around 10 am.
I rushed to Aqueduct to view the film of the race. I then  reported to
Mr. Laurin that we were lucky to have Big Red back alive and unhurt.
Paul had done such a good job under bad circumstances that I was really
amazed at the coolness the kid displayed. I was also unable to ride
Secretariat  the next time because I was in the Hospital recuperating
from injuries suffered in a spill a few days earlier. A horse named
Overproof died of a hearth attack under me during the running of a race
and I got trampled by the horse behind me as I went down. I was very
happy that Mr. Laurin gave Paul another chance to ride him, this time he
kept Big Red in the middle of the track to break his maiden  winning by
8 lengths.

Mr. Laurin put me on him for his next start and we finished first in all
his races the rest of the year. He received the Eclipse  Award for HORSE
OF THE YEAR in 1972, the first two year old to receive that award. In
1973, he won his first two starts as a 3 year old, and then came the
infamous Wood Memorial when he had that slight blood infection according
to Dr. Gilman and a large abscess under his upper lip. That was the
reason I could not tighten up on the reins, or in other words,  touch
his mouth. Had I known about the abscess  before hand. I would have
loose reined him all the way instead of trying to ride him on a tight
rein as I had been doing ever since I started riding him. I am
absolutely sure that, had I loose reined him, he would have won but
because it hurt him so much when the reins were tight, he kept throwing
his head up in the air. In retrospect, it was stupid of me not to have
given him his head and left him alone at the first sign of trouble,  but
I was so use to riding him and working him that way, that at the time I
thought I was doing the right thing. Because he was such an easy horse
to handle, I used to loose rein him when I galloped him in the mornings
and tighten up when I worked him. It was a sign to pick up speed.

After recovering from the  abscess he got back to himself just in time
for the Derby. He went on to win the Triple Crown and set new track
records in all three  races. He also set a new world record for 1-1/2
mile in the Belmont, winning the race by a staggering 31 lengths! Only
the teletimer malfunctioning robbed him of his Preakness record for a
long time, but the Daily Racing form recognized it in a foot note in its
chart of the race. The Maryland Racing Commission  finally credited him
with the record in the Spring of 1999. You might say it was long
overdue!!!

Twenty one days later, we went to Chicago for a stroll around the middle
of the track where he was only 1/5 of the track record. If I had only
let him run 2 jumps that day, it would have been another record for him.

Then came the Whitney at Saratoga. When Onion beat him he was a very
sick horse with a bad virus and a 103 degrees temperature. He wasn’t
feeling good when I worked him on Wednesday 3 days prior to the race.
Any other horse would have been finished for the rest of the year, but
being the iron horse that he was, after 3 weeks of walking around the
shed row, Mr.Laurin managed to train him hard enough to run in the
Marlboro Cup where he romped to a new World record.

When Malboro approached NYRA to hold a match race between Secretariat
and the next best horse in the country,  the five top handicappers of
the time decided that this should be Riva Ridge, but there was a lot of
objections about the two horses being from the same stable. Mrs. tweedy
then asked them to make it an invitational race with Secretariat
competing against the top horses in the country including Riva Ridge.
The result was exactly what they had been  trying to avoid from the
start, a match race between Secretariat and Riva Ridge. Big Red finished
first beating Riva Ridge by 3 length while setting a new world record
for one mile and one eight. Riva was 2nd by 6 length over the rest of
the field. As I have said earlier, I've always seen that race as very
convincing proof that after Secretariat, Riva was in fact the best horse
in training at the time.

When he was defeated in the Woodward by Prove Out he just plain  got
tired. He was only ready to run a mile and one eight at best. After his
Marlboro Cup victory his next race was to be the Man o’ War and all we
did with him was slow gallops around the turf course as an introduction
to the grass with only one slow half
mile work in a span of three weeks between the two races.

He was entered in the Woodward along with Riva Ridge, with no intention
of running, but only hoping to scare some of the competition and soften
up the race for Riva. Then  when the track came up sloppy, Riva was
scratched and Secretariat was left in just hoping to get  lucky I
guess.  Of course, we weren't lucku because he wasn't  fit enough to go
the mile and a half coming off that
mile and one eight and then easing up on his training after the hard
training he had had to take to get ready for the Marlboro Cup. They were
just giving him a breather before winding him up for the Man o’ War. I
know now that the race didn’t hurt him but surely set him up for his
first start on the turf.

Anyway, the pressure was on and Mr. Laurin was the greatest trainer I
ever rode for when it came to training under pressure. Instead of
falling to pieces, he always rose to the occasion and was at his best as
demonstrated in the two weeks before the Derby after his loss in the
Wood Memorial. He trained him hard and fast without blinking an eye and
got the job done. He was good and ready. In fact, he was awesome in the
Man o' War and again set a new track record. He broke first and we went
straight for the lead, then he kept pulling away every time he heard
that other horse (Tentam) coming close to us. He was lighter on his feet
and just seem to float on that grass. At the time I estimated, and I
sincerely believe to this day that as great as he was on the dirt, he
was 10 to 15 lengths better on the grass.

Years latter when asked who was the greatest horse she had ever seen,
Mrs. Rose Hamburger always said without hesitation:  Secretariat, and
she claims to have seen every Preakness since 1908. She past away in
1996 at the age of 105,

 Eddy Arcaro and I  had many occasions to talk horses because we often
traveled together to different functions and shared the same hotel room
quite a lot from 1973 to 1978.  After my accident we still attended a
lot functions, autograph sessions etc.. and spoke at least two to three
times a month for different reasons.  When he couldn't make an
appearance he would suggest  I went and vice a versa. In all those
conversations, he always maintained to me that Kelso was the greatest
horse that he ever rode. I always replied Eddy you rode Citation, but
his reply  was always the same: " Ronnie you rode the best I ever saw. I
never saw Man o’ War run but everybody I speak to who saw them both tell
me that Secretariat was the best, the greatest thoroughbred of all
times."  Now Eddy knew a lot more older peoples than I ever did. It was
only in the last couple of years where I read that Eddy mentioned that
Citation was the best he rode, but he never mentioned that
to me. He would always say:  "That Big Red "so and so"  you rode was the
best no ifs or buts about it!"

Then of course came his last race, The Canadian Championship. As I have
mentioned earlier when I discussed the race, Secretariat really showed
in his last race that he could run anywhere, on any race track, no
matter the conditions.


The four best quotes I've read in different articles follow below but
not necessarily in any special order.

Charlie Hatton, long time writer for The Daily Racing was the first to
recognize his potential. He wrote after Secretariat’s retirement in
November 1973.
Now I know there should never be any questions as to who was the Most
Horse of all times as I have been stating in my many columns all along,

Teddy Cox, Daily Racing Form, Oct. 1973
He sure made a believer out of me He is The Greatest ever.

 Mike Casale, Thoroughbred Record September 16, 1973:
Secretariat the Super horse I have always believed Him to be--- The most
astounding performer of my time and that goes back to Man O War.

Joe Hirsch Daily Racing Form July 4, 1997:
Secretariat separates Himself from the field-and other Racing Legends -
With His historic Belmont.--- On The List Of Greats, There Was Only One
Secretariat.

 Now you judge for yourself.  If he was the greatest horse of all times,
shouldn't he be HORSE OF THE CENTURY...?

As for me I am very puzzled<p>

Sincerely,<p>
Ron Turcotte<b>
Drummond, NB, Ca.