From owner-derby@inslab.uky.edu Thu Feb 2 21:11:08 1995 Return-Path: Received: from simpatico.inslab.uky.edu by oasys.dt.navy.mil (5.61/oasys.dt.navy.mil) id AA21628; Thu, 2 Feb 95 21:11:04 EST Received: by inslab.uky.edu (NX5.67e/NX3.0M) id AA12615; Thu, 2 Feb 95 21:05:05 -0500 Message-Id: <9502022242.AA25046@mts-gw.pa.dec.com> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 95 14:56:10 PST From: JOHN D'Addamio To: derby@inslab.uky.edu (Horse Racing List) Apparently-To: derby@inslab.uky.edu, jdaddamio@decwet.enet.dec.com Subject: Secretariat's race record Comments: Derby Message #3222 Sender: owner-derby@inslab.uky.edu Errors-To: derby-problems@inslab.uky.edu Here's Secretariat's race record. I've marked record setting performances with * in the "Finish" column. Date Race & Distance Track Finish __________________________________________________________________________ 7/4/72 Maiden Special Wgt 5.5f Aqueduct 4th 1 1/4 lengths behind winner; Mugged at the start; blocked; rallied late. 7/15/72 Maiden Special Wgt 6f Aqueduct Won handily by 6 7/31/72 Allowance 6f Saratoga Won by 1 1/2 ridden out 8/16/72 Sanford Stakes 6f Saratoga Won by 3 ridden out 8/26/72 Hopeful 6.5f Saratoga Won Handily by 5 9/16/72 Belmont Futurity 6.5f Belmont Won Handily by 1 3/4 10/14/72 Champagne Stakes 8f Belmont Crossed finish first by 2 lengths; DQ'ed to second for bearing in passing Stopthemusic 10/28/72 Laurel Futurity 8.5f Laurel Won easily by 4 11/18/72 Garden State 8.5f GSP Won handily by 3 1/2 Champion 2 YO and Horse of the Year for 1972 3/17/73 Bay Shore 7f Aqueduct Won by 4 1/2 in mild drive 4/ 7/73 Gotham 8f Aqueduct *Won by 3 ridden out; Stakes record; course equaling record; broken by Easy Goer in 1989 4/21/73 Wood Memorial 9f Aqueduct 3rd 4 lengths behind winner; raced wide and hung; said to have had an abcess in his mouth which kept him from taking hold of the bit 5/ 5/73 KY Derby 10f Churchhill *Won handily by 2 1/2 - stakes & course record still stands 5/19/73 Preakness 9.5f Pimlico *Won handily by 2 1/2 - unofficially stakes & course record; stakes record tied by Tank's Propect(1985). course record beaten by 1/5 second by Blushing John in the Pimlico Special 6/ 9/73 Belmont Stakes 12f Belmont *Won ridden out by 31 lengths! stakes & course record still stands 6/30/73 Arlington Invitaional 9f Arlington Won easily by 6 8/ 4/73 Whitney Stakes 9f Saratoga 2nd by a length; weakened in stretch; said to have had a mild fever 9/15/73 Marlboro Inv Handicap 9f Belmont *Won beating stablemate Riva Ridge(1972 KY Derby and Belmont winner) by 3 1/2; stakes, course and world record. 9/29/73 Woodward 12f Belmont 2nd; 4 1/2 lengths behind winner; said to have been a last minute substitution for Riva Ridge who did not like an off track; Was being trained on turf for Man o'War Stakes 9 days later 10/ 8/73 Man o'War Stakes 12f turf Belmont *Won by 5 ridden out; stakes & course record; Broken 1992 by Sky Classic 10/28/73 Can. International 13f turf Woodbine *Won by 5 1/2 ridden out; Race is now run at 12f Champion 3 YO and Horse of the Year for 1973 Re timing of Secretariat's Preakness There is NO question that the electronic timer malfunctioned that day. The electronic timer showed a final time of 1:55 with a first quarter in :25 seconds even though the horse on the lead was hustled. The track's official handicapper hand-timed the race in 1:54 2/5 which is a full 3/5 of a second faster than the electronic timer. Before the race, Andy Beyer is reported to have predicted that Secretariat would win the Preakness and run it in 1:53 2/5. [I say "is reported to have predicted" because I don't have first hand knowledge of the event. I neither know Andy Beyer nor was I present at the time.] Two different experienced clockers who worked for The Daily Racing Form hand-timed the race in exactly 1:53 2/5 from different vantage points. This was standard practice for The Daily Racing Form in major races. CBS-TV compared films of Canonero's Preakness record win in 1:54 and Secretariat's Preakness on a frame by frame basis. They showed Secretariat getting to the finish line more than 2 lengths in front of Canonero which means he was more than 2/5s faster. Track officials were convinced that the timer had malfunctioned but refused to take any evidence other than the official handicapper's time. The Daily Racing Form has always published its time which is a full second faster. Looking back at it, Secretariat was defeated 5 times in 21 lifetime starts: once when he got mugged, once when he was disqualified by the stewards, twice when he wasn't healthy and once when he was being prepared for a different race. The latter 3 losses shouldn't have occurred in my opinion. The other 2 were simply bad racing luck. Not bad for a horse won on the toss of a coin! John D. From owner-derby@inslab.uky.edu Fri Feb 3 03:07:13 1995 Return-Path: Received: from simpatico.inslab.uky.edu by oasys.dt.navy.mil (5.61/oasys.dt.navy.mil) id AA01917; Fri, 3 Feb 95 03:07:10 EST Received: by inslab.uky.edu (NX5.67e/NX3.0M) id AA13506; Fri, 3 Feb 95 03:05:04 -0500 X-Provider: NeoSoft, Inc.: Internet Service Provider (713) 684-5969 Date: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 01:56:55 -0600 (CST) From: Steve Davidowitz To: derby@inslab.uky.edu (Horse Racing List) Subject: Re: Secretariat's race record In-Reply-To: <9502022242.AA25046@mts-gw.pa.dec.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Comments: Derby Message #3235 Sender: owner-derby@inslab.uky.edu Errors-To: derby-problems@inslab.uky.edu > 5/19/73 Preakness 9.5f Pimlico *Won handily by 2 1/2 - > unofficially stakes & course > record; stakes record tied by > Tank's Propect(1985). course > record beaten by 1/5 second by > Blushing John in the Pimlico > Special > > Re timing of Secretariat's Preakness > There is NO question that the electronic timer malfunctioned that day. The > electronic timer showed a final time of 1:55 with a first quarter in :25 > seconds even though the horse on the lead was hustled. The track's official > handicapper hand-timed the race in 1:54 2/5 which is a full 3/5 of a second > faster than the electronic timer. > > Before the race, Andy Beyer is reported to have predicted that Secretariat > would win the Preakness and run it in 1:53 2/5. [I say "is reported to have > predicted" because I don't have first hand knowledge of the event. I neither > know Andy Beyer nor was I present at the time.] Two different experienced > clockers who worked for The Daily Racing Form hand-timed the race in exactly > 1:53 2/5 from different vantage points. This was standard practice for The > Daily Racing Form in major races. > > CBS-TV compared films of Canonero's Preakness record win in 1:54 and > Secretariat's Preakness on a frame by frame basis. They showed Secretariat > getting to the finish line more than 2 lengths in front of Canonero which > means he was more than 2/5s faster. > > Track officials were convinced that the timer had malfunctioned but refused to > take any evidence other than the official handicapper's time. The Daily Racing > Form has always published its time which is a full second faster. > > > John D. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments by Steve Davidowitz John's rendition of the Preakness clocking miscue is correct. The only reason Secretariat did not get credit for a track record was that the teletimer did not run as well as he did. Here is the story behind the story (with a few names missing from memory to be supplied at a later posting). Secretariat made a move on the first turn from last to a contending position and kept right on going by Sham on the backstretch without Ron Turcotte doing ANYTHING. In more than 10 years at Pimlico, I never saw a horse make a move on that turn and win, not once! Laffit Pincay Jr. was absolutely stunned and began to ask Sham for a run approaching the far turn. From there to the wire, Turcotte never moved his hands more than a little bit, while Pincay was flailing away with powerful strokes. He couldn't gain an inch. I was in the grandstand with family and after being thrilled by the performance, looked up at the tote board and saw a pedestrian 1:55. I didn't know anything at the time, but DRF clockers Frenchy Schwartz and Frank ?, independently had clocked the race in opposite corners of the press box, in 1:53-2/5. Later when I was writing my piece for Turf and Sport Digest, Clem Florio of the Baltimore News American told me of the two DRF clockings. Florio, a sensational public handicapper and a crusader who would mellow considerably when he later joined the Washington Post went in to see the stewards to challenge the clocking. The stewards blew him off at first, then checked their official timer, E.T. McLean, who said he had gotten a clocking of 1:54-2/5 on his stop watch from the winner's circle porch in the infield. The stewards decided to keep the timing on the board. Florio wrote the discrepency in his story, Gerry Strine wrote it in the Washington Post and Beyer wrote it in the Washington Star. The following morning I called Chick Lang, general manager of Pimlico and the stewards, as senior editor of Turf and Sport Digest Magazine, based in Baltimore and as radio correspondent for a local station. I asked them how they could possibly accept a clocking without checking it further against the tape, recorded in real time, when we were talking about the greatest horse of our time. The stewards blew it off as unprecedented and Lang blew it off with the classic and over used line: "Who really cares about time anyway," he said. Time is only for people in jail." A few days later I wrote an extensive letter to CBS Sports, sending copies to Lang, the Maryland Racing Commission and Penny Tweedy explaining how it would be easy to determine if Secretariat had indeed set a track record in the Preakness. I asked them to measure the length of the Canonero tape against the length of the Secretariat tape and if the latter was shorter they would have the beginnings of a good argument. When that turned out to be the case by a significant amount, I suggested a calibrated electronic clock matched to simultaneous video showings of both races to further narrow the time discrepency, which might be tough to eliminate fully because of the inexact placement of the starting gate behind the official start. The executive producer, Bill ? agreed to go forward with the idea on a TV show, but Mrs. Tweedy asked CBS to hold off because she did not want to ruffle the feathers of the Md racing people who had treated her so well. I called Gerry Strine of the Post and told him where we stood a few days before the Belmont and Gerry pitched in to write a column that spelled out the last hope we had to open the case. What if Secretariat wins the Belmont and sets a new track record, I said, how will history remember racing for denying him the three track records in the three Triple Crown races he deserved? After the Belmont, Bill ? asked Mrs. Tweedy to particpate in a half hour TV show and she agreed.I wrote the Commission and asked them to reconsider and they agreed, providing Mrs. Tweedy filed a formal appeal. The TV show clearly showed that Secretariat had broken the record and a hearing was scheduled late in June in a courthouse in downtown Baltimore. The commisison was not happy about any of this, but it was nearly cornered into accepting the obvious, until CBS blew the case. Instead of providing a clear stop frame presentation to delineate the start or even give Canonero a head start, they presented both tapes side by side accompanied by an affidavid from their technicians that said the time was 1:53-2/5. The commision than met for an hour, threw out the tote board clocking, disregarded the CBS clocking and the DRF clockings and refered to their rule book which stated that in Maryland the offical time of a race shall be the time recorded by the official timer. That was E.T. McLean's clocking of 1:54-2/5, no track record. This was, of course a disheartening experience for everryone who had tried to see truth prevail over arrogance and I have never forgotten it, nor given up the issue. It is my intention in fact, to press for another review in 1998, 25 years after the event, or sooner if given any chance to do so, even though the clockings have lost their contemporary significance. . But, I do have one more anecdotal experience to share. In 1988, when Secretariat's rapidly developing son Risen Star was one day away from winning the Preakness, I made my annual trek to the Pimlico TV room to watch the 1973 Preakness. Twenty minutes later while walking towards the Preakness barn area for one last peek at Risen Star I saw Chick Lang walking towards me from the opposite direction. Lang actually had mellowed some over the years and had become somewhat friendly to me. "Hi Steve," he said. "You wouldn't have the time, would you?" I said, "matter of a fact, I do Chick." And raised my right hand, turned my palm towards him and revealed the stopwatch that still was stuck on the same numbers: "It's 1:53-2/5, Chick, the same time it was 15 years ago." Chick looked at me like I had just dropped in from Mars and walked away muttering to himself. Steve Davidowitz