Patricia McQueen continues her popular series with a magisterial sweep of the equine legend’s lesser-known stakes-winning offspring
Over the past decade, this series has explored Secretariat’s overall impact as a sire and profiled his most notable offspring. From champions and top-class stakes winners to outstanding broodmares to the few seniors who remained in recent years, it has been a celebration of Secretariat.
By my reckoning, Secretariat sired 62 stakes winners; he’s officially credited with 57, but that number doesn’t include a few who are not recognized as such by international standards of the time. This article summarizes the 26 stakes winners who have not been included in any previous articles in this series.
Off the mark at home
While Secretariat’s first stakes winner as a sire was Dactylographer, who won England’s G1 William Hill Futurity in 1977, his first North American stakes winner didn’t come until the next year.
Her name was Messina, who got her stakes win at age three in her fifth start, the Valdale Stakes at Latonia (now Turfway Park). She dominated the race with a 10-length victory. Messina raced just three more times, and her claim to fame as a broodmare came after she was sent to Japan; she was the second dam Japanese G1 winner Telegnosis.
Legendary owner-breeder Fred Hooper earned a season to Secretariat when his prized mare Susan’s Girl won the Matchmaker Stakes at Atlantic City Race Course.
He chose to send his mare Roman Goddess to the stallion, and the resulting 1977 foal was If This Be So. After breaking his maiden in the summer of 1980, the colt spent the next year in the allowance ranks in New York and California.
Hooper’s confidence in the horse was finally rewarded when he impressively won two turf stakes in November 1981, the Henry P. Russell and Evergreen handicaps. His future seemed very bright until he fractured a knee in a workout and was retired. Disappointing at stud, he died after a paddock injury at age 12.
Another 1977 foal was Secretarial Queen, a winner in four starts at two before being sidelined by ankle problems. She returned a winner the next year and then got her stakes win in the Ruth Lily Stakes at Hollywood Park.
After a second in the G1 Hollywood Oaks, she went off form and was retired. As a broodmare, she produced stakes winner At Full Feather, and her descendants include a number of G1 winners.
When turf comes first
Thirty of Secretariat’s stakes winners were successful on the turf course. One such was Office Wife, also born in 1977. Unplaced in her only start in France, she had much more success after returning to the US.
She ran well in several stakes before getting a win in the 1982 Modesty Handicap at Arlington Park. As a broodmare, she only produced five foals; the best was Dance Treat, a multiple G3 stakes winner in France.
Turf was also the favored surface of Swoon, born in 1978. Plagued by injuries early in his career, he had his best year at age seven. A long-distance turf specialist, he became a stakes winner in the 1985 San Marino Handicap at 12 furlongs.
That year he competed very well against horses half his age, with close thirds in the G1 San Juan Capistrano and G1 Hollywood Invitational. He had limited opportunity as a stallion and sired four stakes winners. One, Littlesuruki, was the second dam of graded stakes winners Melmich and Iliad.
Golden Highlights, born in 1979, was yet another grass specialist. At three, she won two straight races on the Arlington Park lawn before recording her only stakes win in the 1983 Sooner Stakes at Louisiana Downs.
As a broodmare, she produced stakes winner Fariedah and has numerous stakes-winning descendants. She shared a field with her pal Secrettame at Mare Haven Farm.
A foal of 1979, Lucky Legend raced against some of the best of his crop while in California early in his career. In an allowance win at Santa Anita in February 1982, he defeated future Kentucky Derby winner Gato Del Sol and future Hollywood Derby winner Racing Is Fun.
Sold to Illinois connections, he ultimately won four more races over the next 18 months. Lucky Legend set a track record for a mile and 70 yards at Hawthorne in December 1982, and became a stakes winner the following April with a wire-to-wire performance in the Glass House Handicap at Sportsman’s Park, equaling the track record for a mile. He had a limited stud career in Texas.
Romantico was another 1979 foal. He won two of 15 starts at three, and was fourth in the G1 American Derby. The next year he won two of 10 starts, getting a stakes win in the Ventnor Stakes at Atlantic City. He was retired after an unsuccessful campaign at five, and had a limited stud career.
The first of two Ohio-bred stakes winners by Secretariat, the 1979 colt Satan’s Secretary made just four starts, all at two, and all four were stakes races. He won the first two, both for Ohio-breds, the Hoover Stakes and Loyalty Stakes, at River Downs and Thistledown, respectively. Satan’s Secretary finished far back in his remaining two starts. He had a limited stud career in Louisiana.
Longer story
Years later, Ohio-bred Careless Secretary had a much longer-lasting story. The 1989 colt broke his maiden in his third start, the Cleveland Kindergarten Stakes for Ohio-breds at Thistledown. At three, he won another restricted stakes, the Forest City Handicap at the same track. Those were his only victories in 17 starts.
Careless Secretary ended up as a stallion in Germany and then Bulgaria, siring some Thoroughbreds and becoming a sought-after sire of warmblood sport horses. He was the last active breeding son of Secretariat, making live covers at age 26 in 2015.
In early 1983, three-year-old Secret ran away from the field in his second start at Santa Anita, and thoughts of the Kentucky Derby came to mind. The colt made it two in a row, then faltered in stakes company, quickly dismissing Derby dreams.
Those were his only two wins in 25 American starts before he was sold to Jamaican interests at age five. There, he won both starts at Caymanas Park. First came the prestigious Benson & Hedges Gold Cup, and Secret dominated the other 15 entrants, winning by 10 lengths in a very impressive performance. He closed out his career about six weeks later, setting a new track record for one mile.
A foal of 1981, the filly Ellington Hill won her first two career starts at three, both at Monmouth Park. She was kept busy over the next 18 months, winning a few races and sometimes earning a check for her other efforts. The filly picked up a stakes win at Hialeah at age four, the nine-furlong Coral Gables Stakes. In total, she won seven of 25 starts. She had only three foals; her daughter Little Lady Leah became a stakes producer.
Another 1981 filly was Fleet Secretariat, who began her career Southern California. It took 10 tries to break her maiden, finally doing so as a three-year-old at Hollywood Park.
She won twice more in California before heading to the inaugural season at Minnesota’s Canterbury Downs in 1985. It was at that track the next year where she became a stakes winner, taking the Burnsville Handicap. In total, Fleet Secretariat made 38 starts, and passed along her durability to her foals, including two stakes winners.
Grade 1 producer
One of Secretariat’s 23 daughters to produce at least one G1 stakes winner, Madame Secretary raced only at three in 1985. She won two of 12 starts that year, including the Dolly Val Handicap at Balmoral Park.
Her first foal was English stakes winner Tabdea, and her sixth foal was French G1 winner Ta Rib. Both fillies carried on the mare’s female line as stakes producers themselves.
Subjective, one of seven Secretariat stakes winners born in 1982, loved the grass. She broke her maiden at Ayr Racecourse in Scotland, her only European victory in 10 starts before coming home to America for her four-year-old season.
She started 21 more times through age five; among her victories were the Iris Stakes at Garden State Park and the Suffolk Downs Budweiser Breeders’ Cup. She’s the second dam of Just Mambo, an Australian-bred G1 winner.
Canadian-bred Sweeping Change never reached the racing class of his half-brothers With Approval and Touch Gold, but he did become a stakes winner at three in the 1988 Woodstock Stakes at Greenwood. He was sent to Chile for opportunities as a stallion.
Riva Ridge connection
Two Secretariat stakes winners were produced from mares by Secretariat’s champion stablemate Riva Ridge. The first was Secretaridge, a 1986 foal out of Castle Ridge.
The only Secretariat stakes winner bred in Illinois, the filly broke her maiden at Santa Anita, but had the most success in her home state. She won three straight allowance races at Arlington Park at three, and earned her stakes win in the Illinois Oaks at Hawthorne.
As a broodmare, she produced multiple stakes winner Chicago Six, who set a track record at Sportsman’s Park.
Two years later came Fantastic Ways, out of the Riva Ridge mare Fantastic Girl. She won three races at Santa Anita early in 1991; two on the dirt and then a victory in the Providencia Stakes on the turf.
After an extended layoff, she won one more race at age four. Fantastic Ways became another wonderful Secretariat broodmare, producing graded stakes winners Worldly Ways, Trial By Jury and Miss Fortunate.
Born in 1987, Tiffany’s Secret broke her maiden in her third start at two, and then struggled until the following spring. She put it all together at the right time, winning an allowance race at Woodbine followed by a win in the Canadian Oaks (now Woodbine Oaks), Canada’s premier race for Canadian-bred fillies.
After six months off, she never regained that winning form. She produced the stakes-placed Play Mizzty for Me and has a few stakes-winning descendants.
Secret Imperatrice, the lone California-bred stakes winner by Secretariat, was a 1988 filly out of Time For Integrity, the only daughter of Secretariat’s rival Sham to produce a foal by the Triple Crown winner.
Secret Imperatrice was most successful in Northern California, following her maiden win on the Bay Meadows dirt with a stakes win in the Oak View Farm Handicap on the track’s turf course. As a broodmare, she produced stakes winners Sudden Storm and High Action, a G2 winner over jumps.
Kentucky-bred Kashgar placed just once in five starts in Canada at two in 1991. Some time off and a new trainer worked wonders, and at three he won four of seven starts at Woodbine and Fort Erie. At Fort Erie, he won the International Turf Cup Handicap.
He sired only 40 foals in Illinois, including stakes winner Moe B Dick, who also managed to win two consecutive races at the remarkable racing age of 12.
Groundbreaking success in Japan
One Kentucky-bred Secretariat, the 1989 colt Hishi Masaru, was a multiple graded stakes winner in Japan. At the time, foreign-bred runners were not allowed in the country’s Triple Crown races, and as a talented three-year-old, he had to settle for three straight G3 victories in local preps for those races.
He was actually the first foreign-bred to ever win three consecutive Group races in Japan, and his success helped ease the restrictions going forward.
Later in 1992, he tackled some of the world’s best horses in the Japan Cup. He finished a very respectable fifth, beaten only about four lengths by winner Tokai Teio with some top international runners behind in the 14-horse field.
Tendon issues limited him to only two starts after that, and he was initially well supported as a stallion. He only sired three stakes winners, and was eventually pensioned to AERU, a resort destination on the northern Japan island of Hokkaido that provides a home for notable retired Thoroughbreds. The stallion passed away at age 29 in 2018.
There were four other Secretariat colts that had some racing success in Japan. They were all bred in the country, but didn’t have the same talent as Hishi Masaru.
Still, they won races that are considered stakes races in Japan. They were Secre Faster, a foal of 1976 who also placed in two G3 events; the 1978 foal Yamanin Secre; and two colts born in 1989. Astrogate was eligible for the same 1992 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) that Hishi Misaru had to miss, but he didn’t have the same talent and finished far back in the race. On Air was promising at two, finishing fourth in a G2 race in just his third start and then winning a minor stakes race. Unfortunately, he broke down in his first start at three.
All told, of Secretariat’s 62 stakes winners, nine won at the G1 level, eight recorded G2 wins, and six won G3 races. They won stakes races in 10 different countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Caribbean, bringing a little Secretariat magic far from his home.
• Children of Secretariat: click here for links to all the articles in Patricia McQueen’s series
From Chief’s Crown to Sovereignty and beyond: Secretariat’s enduring influence on the Breeders’ Cup
End of an era as Secretariat’s final son Maritime Traveler dies, aged 35
How Secretariat’s offspring contributed to the fabled career of D. Wayne Lukas
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires