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Secretariat at 50: Big Red’s Road to the Triple Crown Went Through the Wood Memorial

by Jim Reisler

Many in the crowd of 43,416 fans who filed into Aqueduct Racetrack on April 21, 1973 for the 49^th running for the Wood Memorial were expecting a rout.

Fifty years ago this spring, Meadow Stable’s Secretariat, the 1972 Horse of the Year, was coming off a wire-to-wire win in the 1-mile Gotham at Aqueduct, and was looking for a last tune-up to solidify his chances in the upcoming Triple Crown.

For Secretariat, the winner of nine of his previous 11 races and bigger and more powerful than just about any other horses in racing, the 1 1/8-mile Wood Memorial would be another stepping stone, a triumphant way for fans to wish him “bon voyage.”

Or so it seemed.

In a stunner, Angle Light contributed a smashing upset in the $114,900 Wood Memorial, finishing a head in front of Sham, who had four lengths over the highly regarded Secretariat. But Angle Light paid a mere $2.60 to win and $2.10 to place, for the simple reason that he ran as an entrymate with Secretariat. There was no show betting.

“(Secretariat) just didn't have his punch today,” said regular jockey Ron Turcotte. “I had him in the clear on the backside and I tried to move him up, but he didn't respond … Coming into the stretch … I felt that he wasn't himself. He bore in a little going into the stretch. He finished good, but not with his usual kick.”

Some doubters said that Secretariat’s problem was that the progeny of his famous sire, Bold Rumer, weren’t noted for stamina, adding ominously that the 1 ¼-mile Derby was a furlong farther than the Wood. But when trainer Lucien Laurin revealed that an abscess inside Secretariat’s mouth must have caused the horse serious discomfort, the reason for his lackluster performance became clear.

In the winner’s circle after the Wood, Laurin, who also trained Angle Light, played it cool. “Each horse had to run his own race,” he said. “They have two different owners and I couldn't use one to help the other if it hurt him. Angle Light is the one who likes to run on the front end, and he did.”

Laurin would ship both horses to Churchill Downs, where in the Derby, Secretariat romped to a record time of 1:59+²⁄₅, 2 ¹⁄₂ lengths ahead of Sham, with Angle Light placing 10^th. The Wood Memorial would be the last of Angle Light’s four career victories; he and Sham would forever be celebrated as among the few to top Big Red.