Secretariat and Affirmed at Stud
Both Won Two-Year-Old Eclipse Awards; Later Sired Stakes Champs
Triple Crown champions Affirmed and Secretariat won best two-year-old and best three-year-old Eclipse Awards. They raced in the same decade, but took different paths.
Triple Crown Spotlight Series: Secretariat - Affirmed
TC Champions: Rankings
Distinctly different paths to Triple Crown glory highlight the careers of Affirmed and Secretariat, 1978 and 1973 Triple Crown champions, respectively. Oddly, there were three TC champs in the 1970s, but none since then. Before the 1970s, there were four TC titles claimed in the 1940s.
Secretariat ran away from Sham, his most notable competitive contemporary, in his triple quest, while Affirmed three times fought off the game Alydar.
Secretariat's 1973 Belmont Stakes victory of 31 lengths was an incredible feat that gained him world wide renown. His world record time in the race, 2:24 flat, shaved an amazing 2-3/5 seconds off the previous best time. It was his shining moment in a star-studded career of just 21 races in two seasons.
Affirmed's Belmont was a gut wrenching win in the final strides. No horse since him (1978) has shown triple heart form. Affirmed successfully passed his genes, however, to many stakes winners and champion caliber individuals.
Sought After Sires
Retired to stud at Claiborne Farm after his 1973 season, Secretariat accomplished only modest success in breeding duties. At 19, he was still comparatively young when he could no longer fight off the debilitating affects of incurable laminitis, the deadly hoof disease.
He did sire a dual classic winner in Risen Star, who won both the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes in 1988. Big Red's son, General Assembly, won the 1979 Travers Stakes, battled Spectacular Bid, then went on to success at stud.
Secretariat's daughters produced champions Chief's Crown, and the half brothers A.P. Indy and Summer Squall. Lady's Secret, his best stakes daughter, claimed Horse of the Year honors in 1986, as well as the Handicap Female award.
In legacy, Secretariat was an overwhelming fan favorite. His portrait appeared on three national magazines in 1973. Tourists poured into Paris, Kentucky to get a look at him after he was retired. His TC championship was the first in 25 years, following Citation's 1948 accomplishment, and pumped new life into the Sport of Kings.
Affirmed became one of the most sought after sires in the last third of the 20th Century. Many of his offspring achieved their best accomplishments on grass, while he was strictly a dirt racer. None of his progeny were as great a runner as he, but he served at stud in many different countries.
Flawlessly was his best daughter. Alydar and Affirmed both served at stud for Calumet Farm.
Eclipse Awards
In 1973, Secretariat won three Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year, Three-Year-Old Male Champion and Grass Horse of the Year. He remains as the only two-year-old to win Horse of the Year (1972) and go on to a Triple Crown title the next year, then again capture the HOY award.
Affirmed's nose in the 1978 Belmont was good for five other titles in two seasons, while his determined rival, Alydar, could not score a single one for all his efforts. Eclipse Awards went to Affirmed as Champion Three-year-old colt and Horse of the Year, 1978, and in 1979 he won Champion Handicap Horse, as well as a second Horse of the Year award.
