“Simulcasting didn’t start until 1981, so you would hear about this horse but you couldn’t just tune in and see him or look him up on YouTube.
“It was an enormous thing,” said Jim Bannon, an award-winning racing analyst and handicapper at Woodbine. When news came that Secretariat was indeed headed to Toronto, even those who worked at the track were stunned. In addition to Tweedy simply confiding in Taylor and receiving advice in return, Taylor became one of the first buyers into Tweedy’s Secretariat syndicate, which solved the financial crisis of her father’s Meadow Stud. Taylor, developed a close relationship with owner Penny Tweedy (Chenery) after her father passed. Both regular rider Ron Turcotte (New Brunswick) and trainer Lucien Laurin (Quebec) hailed from Canada, and one of the country’s premier horsemen, E.P. There were genuinely compelling reasons to race Secretariat north of the border. Man O’ War’s famous 1920 match race against older Triple Crown winner Sir Barton took place in Windsor, Ontario, and the great Exterminator made his 99th career start in Montreal in 1922.Īfter Secretariat, $9 million-earner Cigar lost the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine, wrapping up his career with 19 wins in 33 starts. While sending a modern American horse to end their campaign in Canada would come as a surprise now, there was some precedent in the past. And, although unforgiving weather, a jockey’s untimely infraction, and dubious race tactics made for a dramatic scene, Secretariat raced to his best, turning the 1973 Canadian International Championship Stakes into one of the great moments in Canadian sports history. Canadians would be given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the magnificent horse run in the flesh. That’s why racing fans were astounded to hear that Secretariat, considered by many to be the greatest American racehorse of all time, would conclude his career at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada. But, aside from his spring exploits, people had to follow his career chiefly via print media. In 1973, households were treated to a Triple Crown for the ages as the mighty Secretariat raced his way to a 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes.
Unless present at the racetrack itself, fans were more likely to read about great horses in the newspaper than see them.
Part two is tomorrow.īefore streaming track feeds on your phone or computer, and even before the advent of simulcasting, it was difficult to find horse racing on television outside of the Triple Crown. Here, in a two-part report, Emily Shields looks back at that never-to-be-forgotten week, ahead of the 2017 running of the Pattison Canadian International on Sunday. It remains one of the most memorable episodes in Canadian sporting history, not just the day Secretariat ran his last race, in the 1973 Canadian International over a mile and five-eighths on the turf at Woodbine, but the days leading up to it - every moment after the great champion flew into Toronto. Photo: Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame/Michael Burns All power: Secretariat working on the turf at Woodbine before the 1973 Canadian International.
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