This Sunday will mark the 40th anniversary of Secretariat's Kentucky Derby victory en route to his stunning Triple Crown performance. Plenty of Classic races have been run since, but if you ask his rider Ron Turcotte about those days leading up to the coveted race, they vividly return to his memory, but lost in time is the fact there were many hectic and worrisome days leading up to the first Saturday in May for the then- 31-year-old rider.
""It sure doesn't feel like it's been forty years. It's like the legend grows. He was the gift that keeps on giving. It's been forty years and all his legends are still intact."
Secretariat was headed to the Derby just a year after his Meadow Stable captured the Roses with Riva Ridge in 1972. Turcotte returned with a Derby win on his resume, and now had claim to another hopeful, a big red colt who watched planes fly overhead, loved to eat and effortlessly ran increasingly faster as the distance lasted when given the chance.
After winning the Bay Shore and the Gotham, the then-later scheduled Wood Memorial on April 21 would be the final prep race before departing for Kentucky. A disappointing third-place finish in that race won by his stablemate Angle Light, put the big red colt's future in doubt and gave Turcotte plenty to question in the next two weeks.
"When I went to the gate in the Wood, he went through the gate doors before the race," Turcotte said. "He never did that before, and I've never seen it written anywhere or talked about since. He broke through. I pulled him up, and just brought him around easy, then he went back into the stall good. He put his head in there and then I just turned him loose. We broke all right, and I let him go. I pulled him a bit and he threw his head up in the air. I tried again, same thing. I didn't know what the heck was wrong."
Rumors spread that Big Red was hurt. Was he suffering from knee problems? Bone chips? His trainer Lucien Laurin was blamed as being an incompetent trainer. Turcotte himself was blamed for the ride. The trainer, jockey and owner Penny Tweedy, known affectionately as Team Secretariat, was collectively at a loss for reason.
Big Red walked in the shedrow at his Belmont barn for the next two days before heading to Louisville that Monday where he returned to the track at Churchill Downs that Wednesday and Thursday and galloped under exercise rider Charlie Davis. Unbeknownst to Turcotte, the answer to the thousands of questions surrounding the upset was found when Dr. Manuel Gilman, the veterinarian, looked for the colt's tattoo number stamped inside his upper lip earlier that morning when he was to run in the Wood.
"That Friday after I worked him in 1:12 I didn't like the way he worked," Turcotte said. "I asked Dr. Gilman, about him. He said 'well the abscess came to a head.' I said what abscess? He said there was an abscess in his mouth. Then I said thank God, you just solved my problem. It was an abscess! The following week, I find that Charlie Davis had known about it. The groom Eddie Sweat knew. When you put the bridle on him he threw his head up. After that week, he started eating good again. He came back to himself. Davis and Sweat, they weren't at liberty to tell anybody. I didn't want to put them in trouble. I didn't tell the owner or trainer. That's how it was done. You learn to say nothing sometimes. It was different then.
"I was not worried about the Wood after I knew about the abscess. When I went back to work the next time, Charlie and Sweat said the horse was doing better. He worked 58 flat that day. They [the clockers] said 58 and two, but I thought, no, it was 58. I told Charlie, 'I think were in the same place we were last year on the first Saturday in May'. When the Derby came, I just took it easy the first part, just let him gallop the first mile, which was the instructions Lucien gave me. He took off. He was back."
Backed by a loyal fan base, Secretariat was sent off as the 3-2 favorite and broke from post 10. He went on to win by 2 1/2 lengths and set the record for the 1 ¹/‚„ miles in 1:59.2/5. The split times would reveal that Big Red ran each quarter mile in a faster time as the race continued to the finish line. Turcotte was again in the winners' circle donning the blue and white silks and fittingly his teammate was draped in a blanket of roses.
"I told a friend of mine at the time, 'Secretariat's going to win,' " Turcotte said. "He says, 'No, I think Sham.' I just told him I think you're wrong. When I told him I was going to win, I just couldn't tell him the reason why. Dr. Gilman wasn't at liberty to say anything then either. He was working for the Association (NYRA). He had the confidentiality to the owner and trainer. It's a shame the people didn't know anything about the abscess until after the Derby. After that race, I thought we were a cinch for the Preakness.
"It goes to show you that you need to have a horse that is versatile and tough to make all three of the races. You need the right team to be successful, the right trainer, the right owner and the right rider. They all have to stick together."
aaffrunti@nypost.com
