Secretariat went to the owner who lost a coin toss
In the autumn of 1969, two horse owners met in a New York office to flip a coin, and each secretly hoped to lose. The winner would get one foal; the loser, two, including one not yet born. Penny Chenery lost. The unborn colt she received became Secretariat, arguably the finest racehorse ever.
The odd wager grew out of how the Phipps family managed their champion stallion Bold Ruler. Rather than charge a stud fee, they sometimes arranged foal-sharing deals to bring fresh bloodlines in: several matings with another owner's mares, then the foals split, a coin deciding who picked first. Chenery sent two mares in 1968 and two more in 1969, but one failed to conceive. So the toss winner would take first choice of the 1969 foals and nothing else. Ogden Phipps won and chose a filly who never won a race. Chenery got the other 1969 colt plus the mare Somethingroyal's coming foal.
He arrived just after midnight on 30 March 1970 in Virginia, a bright red chestnut with three white socks. Chenery's notebook entry on first sight was one word: wow. The name came from the farm's secretary, who had once worked with the secretariat of the League of Nations. At first he looked unpromising, a big, clumsy youngster regularly outpaced by stablemates, and his trainer complained he could not outrun a fat man.
Then he filled out. Measured while preparing for the Preakness, his stride stretched nearly 25 feet, driven by huge hindquarters, and his chest was so broad that he needed a custom girth. At three he swept the Triple Crown, the first horse to do so in a quarter of a century, setting records in all three races that still stand. He won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths.
The money side was just as striking. Early in his three-year-old season he was syndicated for a record 6.08 million dollars, on condition he retire by year's end. His greatest breeding legacy came through his daughters, whose sons included champions such as A.P. Indy and Storm Cat. He died in 1989.
Source: Secretariat (horse)
