{"id":1158284,"date":"2020-05-01T16:28:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T20:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1158284"},"modified":"2023-06-10T07:33:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T11:33:11","slug":"secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It turns out that the 1973 Belmont Stakes was not the last time that <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/the-5-most-famous-racehorses-of-all-time\/\">Secretariat<\/a> set a record. Some 47 years later, research has shown that the great thoroughbred holds another distinction that will last until a champion of comparable magnitude comes along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-secretariat-broke-a-long-triple-crown-jinx\">Secretariat broke a long Triple Crown jinx<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Secretariat Belmont Stakes 1973 &amp; extended coverage (HD Version - NEW!)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vfCMtaNiMDM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Citation\nearned thoroughbred racing\u2019s Triple Crown for 3-year-olds in 1948 by placing\nfirst in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. Over the\nnext quarter of a century, eight others would win the first two stages but only\nthe last of the bunch finished the job by triumphing at Belmont Park. That\nchampion was Secretariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nwas apparent early on that Secretariat was championship material. He placed\nfourth in his 2-year-old debut, then won seven of his last eight starts in 1972\nwith the only loss coming by disqualification for interference. That got\nSecretariat named the 1972 Horse of the Year, an honor usually reserved for\n3-year-olds, and set the stage for a magnificent follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secretariat won all three stages of the Triple Crown in record times. His clocking in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/fastest-kentucky-derby-winners\/\">Kentucky Derby<\/a>, when he became the first champion to break two minutes for 1 \u00bc miles, still stands, and his time in the Belmont Stakes remains the American record for \u200b1<sup> \u00bd <\/sup>miles on dirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s the Belmont that is the enduring memory for racing fans because of the way Secretariat dominated. Already far ahead of the field coming off the final turn, Secretariat kicked into a gear unseen before or since at the end of a long race and won by an astonishing 31 lengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-1973-triple-crown-winner-wasn-t-undefeated\">The 1973 Triple Crown winner wasn\u2019t undefeated<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tj7CwE95lWo&#038;pp=ygULc2VjcmV0YXJpYXQ%3D\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sports\nfans remember Secretariat for his impressive wins in the Triple Crown Races and\na world record for 1 1\/8 miles at the Marlboro Cup, but \u201cBig Red\u201d wasn\u2019t\nunbeaten in that magical season. He lost at the Wood Memorial, the Whitney, and\nthe Woodward Stakes, but his resume was so sparkling that a second Horse of the\nYear honor followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\nprevious agreement, Secretariat was retired after the Triple Crown season and\nput out to stud. He sired several quality colts, but the real gems were the\noffspring of the mares he sired. Storm Cat, A.P. Indy, and Chief\u2019s Crown were\njust a few of the notable performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nlegend of Secretariat remains strong 50 years after his birth. Disney produced the\n2010 movie bearing his name, an honor seldom accorded even great human\nchampions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Secretariat has also been honored in another special fashion. In researching the names of American roads named for athletes by cross-referencing census data with Google Maps, ESPN determined that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/horse-racing\/story\/_\/id\/29085406\/wait-secretariat-263-us-roads-named-him\">there are 263 streets<\/a> named for the horse. ESPN said that was far more than for any other animal or human athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-was-secretariat-able-to-accomplish-what-others-couldn-t-achieve\">Why was Secretariat able to accomplish what others couldn\u2019t achieve?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Secretariat Heart Of A Champion\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7p8krJwT6nA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Secretariat\nwas euthanized in October 1989 at the age of 19 after being afflicted with a\npainful hoof disease. A veterinarian brought in to do a necropsy examined the thoroughbred\u2019s\nheart and was astonished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We just stood there in stunned silence. We couldn't believe it. The heart was perfect. There were no problems with it. It was just this huge engine.&#8221; <\/p>\n<cite> Dr. Thomas Swerczek <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Thomas Swerczek estimated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/longform\/belmont\/\">Secretariat\u2019s heart<\/a> to weigh 22 pounds; the heart of an average horse is approximately 8.5 pounds. Secretariat\u2019s bloodlines have been traced back to Eclipse, a fabled racehorse of the late 18<sup>th<\/sup> century who was also determined to have an unusually large heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a theory that <a href=\"http:\/\/horsesonly.com\/crossroads\/xfactor\/heart-1.htm\">a genetic condition<\/a> passed down by distaff bloodlines is responsible for the large hearts of certain colts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretariat, who won the 1973 Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":1158296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4898],"tags":[19090],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown champ in thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown champ in thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-01T20:28:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-10T11:33:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Sports7J\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/\",\"name\":\"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America - Sports7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-01T20:28:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-10T11:33:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac\"},\"description\":\"Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown champ in thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"Secretariat won the 1973 Triple Crown. Ron Kuntz Collection\/Diamond Images\/Getty Images\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/\",\"name\":\"Sports7\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/author\/john-moriello\/\",\"name\":\"John Moriello\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/John-Moriello-96x96.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/John-Moriello-96x96.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"John Moriello\"},\"description\":\"John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sports7 in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"\",\"Sports7J\",\"john-moriello-1a11743\",\"\",\"\"],\"jobTitle\":\"John Moriello | Sports7 Staff Writer, Producer - Motorsports\",\"email\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America - Sports7","description":"Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown champ in thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America","og_description":"Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown champ in thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.","og_url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/","og_site_name":"Sports7","article_published_time":"2020-05-01T20:28:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-10T11:33:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Moriello","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Sports7J","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Moriello","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/","name":"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America - Sports7","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg","datePublished":"2020-05-01T20:28:47+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-10T11:33:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac"},"description":"Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown champ in thoroughbred racing, has been honored across the United States with 263 streets named after him.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Secretariat-1973-Triple-Crown.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"Secretariat won the 1973 Triple Crown. Ron Kuntz Collection\/Diamond Images\/Getty Images"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/secretariat-might-be-the-most-honored-sports-icon-in-america\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Secretariat Might Be the Most Honored Sports Icon in America"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/","name":"Sports7","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/author\/john-moriello\/","name":"John Moriello","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/John-Moriello-96x96.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/John-Moriello-96x96.jpeg","caption":"John Moriello"},"description":"John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sports7 in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.","sameAs":["","Sports7J","john-moriello-1a11743","",""],"jobTitle":"John Moriello | Sports7 Staff Writer, Producer - Motorsports","email":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1158284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1571471,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158284\/revisions\/1571471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1158284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1158284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1158284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}