31 Lengths: Secretariat's Run for the Ages
On June 9, 1973, Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in a still-standing world record to complete the Triple Crown.
They say no horse has ever run a better race, before or since. On the afternoon of June 9, 1973, a big chestnut colt named Secretariat set out to prove it — and left the sportswriters searching for new superlatives.
Secretariat — "Big Red" to his fans — was owned by Penny Chenery's Meadow Stable, trained by Lucien Laurin, and ridden by Ron Turcotte. Born on March 30, 1970, at Meadow Farm in Virginia, he was a handsome chestnut with three white stockings, a white star, and a stripe; his trainer had once joked he was probably "too good-looking" to amount to much. He had already won the Kentucky Derby in a record 1:59 2/5 and taken the Preakness Stakes. Now one race stood between him and the Triple Crown — a feat no horse had achieved in 25 years, since Citation in 1948.
The 105th Belmont Stakes drew 69,138 spectators to Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Secretariat went off as the 1-10 favorite against just four rivals: Sham, who had finished second to him in both the Derby and the Preakness, plus Twice a Prince, My Gallant, and Private Smiles. The questions were real ones: the Belmont's grueling mile and a half had undone many champions, and a suicidal early pace could still beat him.
When the gates opened, Secretariat and Sham raced together around the first turn, tearing through the half-mile in a blistering 46 1/5 seconds. On the backstretch, with Turcotte sitting still as a stone, the big colt simply gathered momentum with every stride — three-quarters in 1:09 4/5, the mile in 1:34 1/5, the quarter-pole in 1:59, faster than he had run winning the Derby. Sham, spent from the duel, faded to last. Track announcer Chic Anderson's voice rose to a yell that would outlive him by decades: "Secretariat is widening now! He is moving like a tremendous machine!"
He was completely alone as he swept across the finish line — 31 lengths in front of Twice a Prince, the largest winning margin in Belmont history. His time of 2:24 flat smashed the stakes record by more than two seconds and still stands as the American record for a mile and a half on dirt. No horse has ever broken 2:25.
Secretariat became the ninth Triple Crown winner, and he did it with a flair no one had matched: he won 16 of his 21 career races, graced the covers of national magazines, and was twice named Horse of the Year. His Belmont performance was later ranked among the 100 greatest moments in sports history.
Why it matters: more than fifty years later, 2:24 remains untouched — the gold standard against which every racehorse is measured. In an era of Vietnam and Watergate, a chestnut colt running alone down the Belmont stretch gave the country two and a half minutes of pure, uncomplicated joy. Some records are broken. This one just gets more mythic.
Photo: George H. Cook, public domain (via Wikimedia Commons).
