Maritime Traveler, who had been the last living offspring of the the legendary Triple Crown winner, was laid to rest on Sunday [July 27] at the cemetery at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, his home for the vast majority of his life
It was inevitable, but it’s still hard to accept. The very last Secretariat to grace this earth has returned to his maker, to run free in the great beyond alongside his illustrious sire.
At the ripe old age of 35, Maritime Traveler passed away peacefully at Ocala’s Bridlewood Farm in the wee hours of Sunday, July 27. It was the only home the stallion had known for almost his entire life, where he served honorably as a teaser to earn his place as an important part of the farm’s storied history.
“Maritime Traveler wasn’t destined to be a great racehorse, but he was certainly a great teaser,” said longtime farm general manager George Isaacs. “He did his job very well here for 25 years.
“We laid him to rest in Bridlewood’s cemetery Sunday morning, alongside all of our other horses that were near and dear to our people and our hearts,”
Coincidentally, those buried there include My Gallant, a G1 winner who was third in Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes and second behind the Triple Crown winner in the Arlington Invitational.
Isaacs had hoped the old boy would hang on for a while longer – Maritime Traveler was still eating all his feed every day and comfortably managing his near-blindness. Yet despite being well acclimated to Florida’s hot summers, it was really tough this year, and eventually the stallion decided it was time to go.
The flashy chestnut first received national attention towards the end of 2022, when the realization came that he was in fact one of the last few remaining Secretariats at that time “I knew he was a son of Secretariat,” recalled Isaacs, “but the years go by and you don’t really think about it.”
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So it was that Maritime Traveler finally became a celebrity at age 32, and Bridlewood tried its best to welcome visitors who came from near and far to see a living legend. “It was the proper thing to do and we enjoyed doing it.”
His passing is the end of an era for Secretariat, and also for a connection to Bridlewood’s original owners, Arthur and Martha Appleton (who purchased Maritime Traveler as a yearling in 1991).
“We are saddened here at Bridlewood as this also ends any living connection to the old Bridlewood,” said Isaacs. Yet the new Bridlewood is as strong as ever; the farm is a co-owner of Preakness winner Journalism, and both he and leading three-year-old Sovereignty received their early training at Bridlewood (both colts are also Secretariat descendants, naturally).
Isaacs added: “The Appletons would be smiling down from above knowing that the flame still burns bright with our new racing stars being started here at the farm and graduating to the world stage.”
For Isaacs, Secretariat will always be one of his all-time favorite horses. “Very few horses will ever look through a bridle and have that kind of athleticism or ability,” he said. Providing a worthy career for a son of Secretariat who lived to a ripe old age “just kind of makes you pinch yourself and be grateful for being born to do what I do.”
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