This year marks what would have been the 50th birthday of legendary racehorse Secretariat . He died in 1989 after battling laminitis.
Winner of 16 of 21 races – he was also first past the post in the 1972 Champagne Stakes but was disqualified and placed second – Secretariat is regarded as one of the two best racehorses ever seen in North America.
Sarah Whitelaw writes that Horse Of The Year at both two and three, Secretariat romped to a devastating 31 length win in the 1973 Belmont Stakes to claim that year’s US Triple Crown after winning both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
Secretariat in action
Retired to stud at Claiborne, Secretariat went on to enjoy a highly successful career at stud and has without doubt left a considerable impact on the modern day stud book.
He sired 54 stakes winners including US Horse Of The Year Lady’s Secret (ironically enough, given her sire’s remarkable success as a broodmare sire), and fellow champions Risen Star and Medaille D’Or and Gr1 winners Dactylographer, Fiesta Lady, Generatinl Assembly, Kingston Rule, Super Staff and Tinners Way. S
Secretariat was, however, regarded initially as somewhat disappointing sire,given the outstanding mares he covered, and he failed to leave behind a top class stallion son.
However, it was as a broodmare sire that Secretariat, a poor sire of sires, has truly left an indeliable mark on the thoroughbred.
North America’s Leading Broodmare Sire of 1992, Secretariat daughters produced more than 20 G1 winners, including the top class stallions A.P. Indy, Chief’s Crown, Dehere, Gone West, Holy Roman Emperor, Storm Cat and Summer Squall (A.P. Indy and Summer Squall being half-brothers, and and also half-brothers to successful SA sire Tiger Ridge -who himself was closely inbred to Secretariat).
Between them, A.P. Indy, Chief’s Crown (sire of, among others, successful sire Grand Lodge), Dehere, Gone West, Holy Roman Emperor, Storm Cat and Summer Squall sired well over 630 stakes winners, with Holy Roman Emperor remaining active at stud.
Secretariat’s legacy continues to loom large, with A.P. Indy, Gone West and Storm Cat all having established powerful male lines.
Tapit
Among their direct active male line descendants today are Tapit, Quality Road, Into Mischief, Speightstown,and Shamardal, some of the most prolific stallions seen this century (not to mention such top prospects as Constitution, No Nay Never and Lope De Vega),while inbreeding to the likes of A.P. Indy, Gone West and Storm Cat has already proved successful.
Inbreeding to A.P. Indy has already resulted in the graded stakes winners Once On Whiskey and Sweet Loretta, and Florida Derby runner up Hofburg, while inbreeding to Gone West has resulted in the likes of Chilean G1 winner Brooke, US G3 winner Hay Dakota, G1 Diamond Stakes winner Vespa, and G2 Forward Gal Stakes winner Tequilita.
Forest Fox wins Grand Heritage
Gone West inbreeding has also enjoyed success in South Africa, with this mating producing the likes of Grand Heritage winner Forest Fox, Dahlia Plate winner Alfeo, Gr2 Selangor Cup winner Hard Days Night, and Drum Star Handicap winner House Of Wax.
Storm Cat’s influence continues to be felt, both as a sire of sires and broodmare sire, all over the world, and inbreeding to the dual US champion sire has produced such Gr1 winners as Fantasmagorico, Flyer, Giant’s Steps, Harmonize, Lady Aurelia, Mia Mischief, Nother Russia, and (fittingly enough) Secretariat Stakes winner Valid Point as well as graded/group stakes winners Engage, Last Gunfighter, Leave The Light On, Malotru, and Mischevious Alex (to name a few).
One of the world’s inform stallions, and former Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, Speightstown, is inbred to Secretariat, with Speightstown a son of Gone West (out of Secretariat’s stakes winning daughter Secretame) and out of the Storm Cat (out of Secretariat’s lightning fast daughter Terlingua) sired champion Silken Cat.
Speightstown was recently responsible for his 17th Gr1 winner when his daughter Mozu Superflare was awarded the Gr1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen.
Mozu Superflare wins the Gr1 in Japan recently
Other notable runners sired by the former US champion sprinter include Gr1 winners Lord Shankill (sire of Gr1 winner My Dream Boat) , Haynesfield, Golden Ticket, Jerseytown, Rockfall, Reyaldothewizard and 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine Sharing.
The sire of more than 100 stakes winners thus far, Speightstown could be poised for a big year in 2020, as he is also the sire of a hugely promising three-year-old in the form of the unbeaten Charlatan.
Remarkably, Speightstown’s top class sire son Munnings, one of the most inform stallions in North America this year thus far, carries no fewer than three lines of Secretariat -Munnings’ third dam being Secretariat’s Gr3 placed daughter Lady Winborne.
The latter was an extraordinary producer with Lady Winborne’s six individual stakes winners headed by Gr1 winners Al Mamoon (John Henry Hcp) and La Gueriere (Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup).
Currently ninth on North America’s Leading Sires List, Munnings has been responsible for six stakes winners, five of which are graded stakes winners, and in Finite, Venetian Harbor and Bonny South he has three top class three-year-old fillies.
Finite, winner of the Gr2 Golden Rod Stakes at two and Gr2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes this year, has four lines of Secretariat in her pedigree, with her stakes winning dam Remit a daughter of A.P. Indy’s outstanding grandson Tapit. Bonny South, Munnings’ Gr2 Fair Grounds Oaks winner, is also out of a Tapit mare.
Champion, and promising young sire Honor Code, who is currently one of the leading Second Crop Sires in North America, is yet another inbred to Secretariat, with Honor Code (by A.P. Indy) out of Storm Cat’s Klassy Briefcase Stakes winning daughter Serena’s Cat.
Clearly the Secretariat influence is a long way from finished!
Watch the 1973 Belmont Stakes:
