On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about this year’s Kentucky Derby. The article noted that all of the horses in the Derby were descendants of Secretariat.
The article reports:
Every horse that ran the 151st Kentucky Derby on Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky, is reportedly descended from one American champion.
Pedigrees apparently show those horses are descended from Secretariat, the horse that in 1973 ran the fastest mile-and-a-quarter in the derby’s history, the Louisville Courier Journal reported Saturday.
Looking back six generations of most horses will reportedly show they are descended from a champion such as Secretariat or Northern Dancer, the outlet said.
According to derby contending trainer Whit Beckman, “It’s one of those stats. It’s bound to happen at some point with how much he shows up in every single pedigree. It’s really cool. Very cool.”
Secretariat was a thoroughbred racehorse that became the first in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in 1973, per History.com. According to the site:
In 1974, Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was the only non-human included among ESPN’s 50 greatest athletes of the century and he became the first thoroughbred to be honored with his own U.S. Postal stamp. Outside the paddock at Belmont Park now stands a statue of Secretariat with both his front feet in the air.
An article in HorseyHooves in June 2023 listed a number of interesting facts about Secretariat.
This is the fact that I thought was the most interesting:
Not only was Secretariat was known for being kind-hearted, but he also had a big heart in the literal sense.
After Secretariat was euthanized on October 4, 1989, at the age of 19, veterinarian Thomas Swerczek performed a necropsy. Swerczek discovered that Secretariat’s heart weighed between 21-22 pounds, two and a half times bigger than an average horse heart.
“We just stood there in stunned silence. We couldn’t believe it. The heart was perfect. There were no problems with it. It was just this huge engine,” said Dr. Swerczek.
That might have had something to do with his incredible performance on the racetrack.