Horse Racing : Former Owner Says She Still Has Emotional Ties to Secretariat

When Penny Chenery saw Secretariat at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., last spring, the woman who raced him to the Triple Crown title in 1973 came away with the impression that he was carrying too much weight.

A couple of weeks ago, Secretariat was diagnosed as having laminitis, a serious hoof inflammation that causes circulatory problems.

Chenery doesn’t have a breeding interest in Secretariat anymore, but she was associated with the horse for 17 of his 19 years. So, naturally she was happy to learn that he has recovered.

“Anything like that could be life-threatening, but he’s stable now,” said Walter Kaufman, the veterinarian who is treating Secretariat. “He’s still on medication, but he now has about 95% of his normal gait back.”

Secretariat was syndicated for breeding after he won the Triple Crown, and Chenery, after years of getting ordinary horses from mares she sent to the stallion, sold her lifetime share a couple of years ago.

“I miss the part about breeding to him every year,” she said. “It was a financial move. The business has gotten so expensive.”

Long before Secretariat’s recent problem, Chenery felt that she made one mistake in sending him to stud.

“If there was anything I would like to do over, it would have been to insist that he be exercised regularly with a rider on his back,” Chenery said. “But when we syndicated him, I was new in that phase of the business, and so was Seth Hancock (who has managed Claiborne since his father, Bull, died).

“Seth just told me that Claiborne never exercised any of it stallions because his daddy didn’t believe in doing it. I found out later that when Seattle Slew was syndicated, it was a condition of the contract that he be ridden on a regular basis.”

Kaufman doesn’t believe that exercising Secretariat would have prevented him from developing laminitis. Kaufman said that Seattle Slew has been exercised since his early stud days because in the beginning he had difficulty getting mares in foal.

“When Sir Gaylord (who was out of Somethingroyal, the same dam as Secretariat’s), first went to stud, he got fat and infertile,” Chenery said. “He was sent to Alec Head, who gave him lots of exercise, and he became one of the best sires in England.”

The last connection for Chenery with Secretariat is Sacred Dance, a 3-year-old daughter of the 1973 horse of the year who is at a Pennsylvania farm. Sacred Dance, who is out of Dance With Squall, a minor stake winner, suffered from a salmonella infection and has never raced.

“She’s gray, but she has Secretariat’s head,” Chenery said. “She may not race until she’s a 5-year-old, but I’ll never give her up. For sentimental reasons, I’m going to keep her the rest of her life.”

Present Value was assigned high weight of 123 pounds, one more than Speedratic and three more than He’s a Saros, for the Pomona Handicap. He’s a Saros, beaten earlier at the meet by Conquering Hero, another nominee for Sunday’s stake, has won the handicap two consecutive years. Conquering Hero, assigned 118 pounds for Sunday, was second in last year’s handicap.

First Magical Mile, who could have been California’s fastest 2-year-old, was sent to the sidelines. Then Red Ransom, an undefeated New York 2-year-old, suffered a leg injury that ended his season.

Summer Squall, winner of the Hopeful at Saratoga, is still in training, but plans to run him Sunday in the Arlington-Washington Futurity have been scuttled because of a bruised foot.

After the Arlington race, Summer Squall was scheduled to run in the Champagne at Belmont Park and then the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park. But instead of the Champagne he may run in the Breeders’ Futurity Oct. 13 at Keeneland, where he’s currently stabled. The Keeneland race is 1 1/16 miles around two turns, which might better prepare Summer Squall for the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup race at the same distance.

Jockey Chris Antley is in limbo in New York because of recurrent substance-abuse problems, and owner Dan Lasater has been reinstated by Louisiana racing officials after a prison stretch.

Antley, one of New York’s leading riders, surrendered his license to authorities, admitting that he has drug problems again. Antley, sidelined a month because of a knee injury, was scheduled to return last weekend, but didn’t ride and was also abandoned by his agent. Antley says he will continue drug rehabilitation and his program will be monitored by state racing authorities before they consider giving him another license.

Lasater, whose stable won 494 races in 1974, which is still a record, won three Eclipse Awards as the country’s top owner before he was arrested on charges of distributing cocaine. He spent 11 months in prison. The commission voted to reinstate him, 4-3.

Horse Racing Notes

More surprising than Bayakoa’s victory over Open Mind in last Sunday’s Ruffian Handicap was that Belmont Park fans made the winner the favorite, even though Open Mind went into the stake with a 10-race winning streak. There was also no advantage for Bayakoa in the weights. Despite a last-place finish at Del Mar in her last start, Bayakoa carried five more pounds than Open Mind, who got a break in the weights because she is a younger horse. In 14 starts before the Ruffian, Open Mind was favored in all except the first three races of her career. Open Mind wound up third in the Ruffian, the first time she has been worse than second.

According to the linemaker at the Sands in Las Vegas, Bayakoa is the 2-1 favorite and Open Mind is 3-1 for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. After his victory in the Super Derby, Sunday Silence went to 8-5, behind Easy Goer at 6-5, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Other Breeders’ Cup favorites are Summer Squall, 3-1 in the Juvenile; Stella Madrid and Rue de Palm, both 3-1 in the Juvenile Fillies; On the Line, 2-1 in the Sprint; Polish Precedent, 2-1 in the Mile; and Cacoethes, 2-1 in the Turf.

Golden Pheasant, the horse that handed Nashwan his first loss by winning a stake at Longchamps, is owned by Kings’ owner Bruce McNall.

Endow, who won his first stake at Fairplex, is scheduled to run there Saturday in the Pomona Derby. . . . On Saturday night at Los Alamitos, Flomont, Mighty Easy Pass and Ourautograph are the leading contenders in the $500,000 Dash for Cash Futurity for quarter horses.

When Pat Day rode eight winners at Arlington recently, widely forgotten was the fact that Hubert Jones was the first jockey to have an eight-victory day. Jones, now a local steward, won eight at Caliente in 1944.

Gene Klein has told Keeneland officials that there will be no reserve prices on the 120 horses to be auctioned at his dispersal sale there on Nov. 6. This means that the horses will be sold without having to meet minimum prices that are frequently established privately before a sale.