LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- In a year when we have Secretariat bourbon bottles, Secretariat bobbleheads and Secretariat clothing, here is another thing that should not be missing from the 50-year celebration of Secretariat's race to the 1973 Triple Crown:
A Secretariat debate.
Which horses belong in the starting gate with Secretariat as the best runners the game has produced over the last five decades?
Four horses earned automatic byes into the discussion. Like Secretariat, they also won the Triple Crown.
Seattle Slew scored in 1977, followed by Affirmed holding off Alydar three times in 1978. Then there was a 37-year gap until American Pharoah scored in 2015. Justify joined the party in 2018.
Hall of Fame jockey Jean Cruguet, who turned 84 last month, is convinced that his Triple Crown horse, Seattle Slew, would have beaten Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby. WDRB Photo Rick Bozich
Monday, on a wind-whipped charcoal morning at Churchill Downs, Jean Cruguet came out to watch the 2023 Derby contenders go to the track at 7:30 a.m. A retired jockey who lives in suburban Louisville, Cruguet is the man who rode Seattle Slew to victories by a combined 7 1/4 lengths in the Derby, Preakness and Belmont. He turned 84 last month but remains drawn to the track by the majesty of the thoroughbred and the energy of the Kentucky Derby.
Don't misunderstand what Cruguet is saying. Secretariat earned all the love — and more — that he has stirred during this celebration of his epic achievement.
The horses never met. Secretariat raced from 1972-73, while Seattle Slew competed from 1976-78.
Secretariat won 16 of 21 starts, finishing second three times, third once and fourth once. Seattle Slew won 14 of 17 with a pair of seconds and a fourth.
But Cruguet and Ron Turcotte, Secretariat's jockey, have fussed about this many times. Although he will concede Secretariat would have beaten Seattle Slew in the Belmont, Cruguet is convinced that his horse would have handled Secretariat in the Derby and Preakness.
"He probably would have beaten me in the Belmont because my horse (didn't love) running that far," Cruguet said.
"But I would have beaten him in the Preakness and the Derby because I had the best horse.
"If you look at the Preakness, he ran fastest mile ever (1:34 4/5)."
The statue of Secretariat, on Opening Night at Churchill Downs, 2021.
And, yes, Cruguet has not forgotten that Secretariat set a Derby record that still stands by completing the mile-and-a-quarter in the ridiculous time of 1:59 2/5 while moving faster every quarter mile.
And although Secretariat was not credited with the official record time in the Preakness because a issue with the timing mechanism, many students of the Triple Crown note that the Daily Racing Form said Secretariat ran the mile-and-three-sixteenths in 1:53 2/5, a full second faster than the Pimlico clock. A Maryland Racing Commission ruling ultimately gave him that record in 2012 in addition to his dazzling 2:24 for the 1 1/2 mile Belmont.
The record shows that Secretariat won the Derby in his 13th career start. He finished fourth in his maiden ran at Aqueduct on July 4, 1972, and then crackled to 10 consecutive victories.
But Secretariat came to the Kentucky Derby on a one-race losing streak. He finished third, four lengths behind Angle Light, two weeks before the Derby at the Wood Memorial in New York City. Secretariat's Derby outlook was so uncertain that even Bill Nack, the author of Secretariat's biography, did not pick the colt to win the race.
Of course, Nack was unaware that Secretariat was compromised in the Wood because of an abscess in his mouth.
Don't look for any flaws on Seattle Slew's Derby record. They did not exist. He flashed into Louisville on six straight victories, four of them by at least 4 lengths. Slew was the first horse to make it through the Triple Crown without a defeat.
His Daily Racing form race charts shows that Slew was never behind at any point in those six races, including the Wood, which he won by 3 1/4 lengths.
What Slew did in the Derby was remarkable, because the first thing the race caller said when the 15-horse field left the starting gate was, "Seattle Slew broke slowly."
Yep. Racing from the No. 4 post position, Slew gave up at least a length to everybody. Cruguet saw a wall of horse form in front of him. Slew did not like that view. The colt carried his jockey from last to second in the first quarter-mile. He was within a head of front-running For the Moment and pressing the pace for the final mile.
At the quarter pole, Seattle Slew confirmed his greatness, powering ahead to a lead of as much as 4 lengths before Cruguet eased him slightly to his 1 3/4-length win over Run Dusty Run.
His winning time of 2:02 1/2 does not compare to Secretariat, but Cruguet said Secretariat did not fight through the entire field the way his colt did.
"Seattle Slew won the Preakness and the Belmont," Cruguet said. "I won the Derby. He was last (out of the gate). Most of the guys would have never did what I did. I bumped two or three horses to get to where I wanted to be."
And where he wanted to be was first in the Derby, Preakness and Belmont, solidly in the discussion with Secretariat for the greatest horses to compete in the Triple Crown.
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