25/03/2025
TORONTO, Oct. 28 1973—Secretariat closed out a glorious career in spectacular style today, winning the Canadian International Championship by 6½ lengths at Woodbine race track.
With Eddie Maple substituting in the irons for Ron Turcotte, the mighty Triple Crown winner thudded through the gloom and wind‐whipped mist at a winning rate of $1,162.50 per lovely foot. His accrued total for the mile and five‐eighths brought $92,775 to Mrs. Helen (Penny) Tweedy's Meadows Stable and raised Secretariat's lifetime earnings to $1,316,808.
Secretariat's backers collected a surprising $2.40 for each $2 wager, though many of the tickets bought by the crowd of 35,117 will never be cashed. They will be stashed away with the other souvenirs of a horse‐conscious cult that has been offered lithographs ($325), full‐color action photos ($6), and even T‐shirts ($6).
Only Kennedy Road dared challenge the Bold Ruler c**t in a 12‐horse race that started on the backstretch, passed before the stands and then circled an inner track. Secretariat lolled off Kennedy Road's starboard stern, his 25‐foot stride eating away slowly at the leader's margin.
Then, on the backstretch of the inner track, three‐eighths of a mile from home, Maple let Super Red have his race. His noble head bobbing like a well‐tuned piston, his blazing red chestnut coat only a smudge in the glare, Secretariat widened the margin and brought home the Canadian bacon.
Maple later disclosed that Kennedy Road had brushed Secretariat as the gap was closed and the angered Super Red took off.
Flashbulbs lighted the stretch of Edward Plunkett Taylor's playpen, 15 miles from downtown Toronto, and few of the delighted fans even noticed that Big Spruce had finished second, Golden Don third, nearly two more lengths back, followed by Presidial.
As Maple pointed his valuable charge (worth $50,666.66 a pound under his $6.08 million syndication) back to the winner's circle, many of the youngsters in the crowd leaped over the barricades and charged the track. The tote board's flashing of the fractional times (24 seconds, 47‐2/5, 1:11‐3/5, 1:37‐2/5 and 2:41‐4/5—four‐fifths off the track record) provided the only available light.
Secretariat's smashing victory salvaged the weekend for his trainer, Lucien Laurin, and Mrs. Tweedy, who saw Maple ride Riva Ridge into dismal defeat only 24 hours earlier at Aqueduct.
Was this Secretariat's last race?
“Yes sir,” said a relieved Laurin after the race. Then he added, “Yes, Sir,” with emphasis.
“We could never go through all that again,” said Mrs. Tweedy.
They were relieved that Maple had vindicated their choice of a jockey after Ron Turcotte was suspended for five days. Turcotte had been aboard Super Red for his 15 previous victories in 20 starts.
The race was handpicked for Secretariat, who carried only 117 pounds under the European scale utilized here. It was, on grass, a furlong longer than the Man o' War, in which Secretariat had set a course record, and Laurin, Turcotte and Mrs. Tweedy sat hunched in a black limousine after Super Red's super workout on Thursday and said, “It's a go.”
Woodbine was chosen because Laurin and Turcotte are both Canadian‐born. Also, it's about 200 miles from the old Kenilworth Park where mighty Man o' War ran his last race. Big Red won by seven lengths and returned $2.20 in a big minus pool.
And so it's on to Belmont for Secretariat for a breather before he starts a new career for love and money on behalf of the investors who put up $190,000 a share for the 32 parts of his big, beautiful red body.