This is the second in a three-part series examining Secretariat’s influence on the Thoroughbred bloodstock industry as we mark the 50-year anniversary of his historic Triple Crown triumphs. This week, learn about Big Red’s record as a sire, with his breakthrough performer in the American classics being Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Risen Star, 35 years ago. It is known by racing fans who come to tour historic Claiborne Farm simply as The Stall, the first stall on the left walking into the main stallion barn at the Hancock family’s Paris, Ky., operation. The brass nameplates of its most famous residents, including multiple classic sires, gleam off the wood and into the ages. When Secretariat walked into his new stall at Claiborne for the first time on Nov. 11, 1973, those in attendance paused to take note of the nameplate on the door, according to the late Bill Nack in his biography of the champion. “Well, you’re in your daddy’s old stall,” said Eddie Sweat, looking at the nameplate on the door. “How about that?” “If he only does as well,” someone said. “He’s got a lot of wood to chop,” said Snow Fields, Bold Ruler’s old groom. “Yes, sir. He’s got a lot of wood to chop.” Bold Ruler had set out a near-impossible standard for his best son to live up to, and one that modern stallions are still chasing today. The 1957 Preakness Stakes winner and Horse of the Year and 1958 champion sprinter led the North American sire list seven straight years at Claiborne, from 1963-69, and claimed an eighth title in 1973 thanks to Secretariat. In the half-century since, no North American stallion claimed more than three sire titles until last year, when Into Mischief earned his fourth straight title. :: Get ready to bet the Preakness! Join DRF Bets and score a $250 Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet + Free PPs - Promo code: WINNING Overall, from 13 crops of racing age numbering 366 foals, Bold Ruler was represented by 240 winners, including 82 stakes winners, from 285 starters for total progeny earnings of $18,631,419, according to Equineline statistics. Those numbers translate into solid percentages of 84 percent winners from starters, and 34 percent stakes winners from overall winners. In addition to Secretariat, he sired the great champion mare Gamely, along with nine other champions. Secretariat, who began his career in the 1974 season at Claiborne following his record $6.08 million syndication, and stood there until his death on Oct. 4, 1989, following a battle with laminitis, produced 663 foals from 16 crops. Neither he nor Bold Ruler saw the current era of massive books where a stallion might produce that many offspring in four or five years, even without dual-hemisphere shuttling. The most recent Triple Crown winner, Justify, has already sired 698 foals since entering stud in 2019, according to Equineline. Secretariat was represented by 341 winners from 498 starters, a 68 percent strike rate. His 57 career stakes winners represented 17 percent of his overall winners. As purses began to rise with the advent of events such as the Breeders’ Cup in the 1980s, his progeny earned a total of $30,154,305. Those figures are perfectly acceptable, but in the eyes of some, “acceptable” was a disappointment. The context, of course, is clear. The standards for Secretariat were overwhelmingly high, because he was expected to replicate himself, a nigh-impossible task, as his accomplishments were singular. There were brief flashes in the early years. Secretariat’s first crop included Canadian Bound, who sold for $1.5 million at the 1976 Keeneland July sale, the first yearling to break that seven-figure threshold in North America. Secretariat’s second crop was led by Canadian champion juvenile Medaille d’Or. And in 1979, Kentucky Derby runner-up General Assembly, from that second crop, won the historic Travers Stakes at Saratoga by 15 lengths in 2:00 flat, setting a track record for the 1 1/4 miles that stood until Arrogate blazed onto the scene in 2016. Secretariat’s real breakthrough horse came along nearly a decade after his retirement in Oklahoma-born Lady’s Secret. A minor stakes winner as a juvenile, she ripped onto the national scene in 1985, winning 10 of 17 starts, including Grade 1 victories in New York in the Maskette, Ruffian, and Beldame. If not for a runner-up effort to Wayne Lukas-trained stablemate Life’s Magic in the second edition of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, she might have earned an Eclipse Award championship. In 1986, Lady’s Secret, a diminutive gray who was physically unlike her strapping chestnut sire, won 10 of 15 starts and was never worse than third to earn Horse of the Year honors. In addition to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, repeat victories in the Maskette, Ruffian, and Beldame, and four other Grade 1 wins against fillies and mares, she defeated males in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap to lock up the title. Lady’s Secret retired after the 1987 season with a record of 45-25-9-3, including 22 stakes wins, and earnings of more than $3 million, a record at the time for a North American filly or mare. In March of 1985, as Lady’s Secret was beginning her rise, another breakthrough horse for Secretariat, Risen Star, was foaled. The lanky bay, a stakes winner at 2, came to hand winning the Louisiana Derby Trial, Louisiana Derby, and Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. He finished third in the 1988 Kentucky Derby to Winning Colors, a filly trained by Lukas. Risen Star swept to the lead between Forty Niner and Winning Colors coming to the top of the stretch of the Preakness Stakes and held off Brian’s Time in the stretch, becoming Secretariat’s first classic winner. Comparisons to his sire were inevitable three weeks later, as Risen Star began to edge away from Winning Colors on the far turn at Belmont Park. As the colt began to extend his lead through the stretch, Dave Johnson, announcing the race to a national audience for ABC, exclaimed, “Risen Star drawing away! He looks like his daddy at this point!” Risen Star hit the wire 14 3/4 lengths in front in the Belmont Stakes, the fourth-largest margin of victory in the race, behind only his sire’s 31 lengths, Triple Crown winner Count Fleet’s 25 in 1943, and the great Man o’ War’s 20 in 1920. His winning time was 2:26 2/5, then the second-fastest time to Secretariat’s 2:24. It still stands as the fourth fastest of all time. :: DRF's Preakness Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more “This horse is the closest thing I’ve seen to Secretariat,” co-owner Ronnie Lamarque told the media at the race. “He has his speed, his heart, his agility. He may not look like him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not him. We didn’t want him to break Secretariat’s record. We wanted him to be second best and he did it.” Risen Star was retired following that race due to aggravating an ankle injury, compiling a record of 11-8-2-1, earnings of more than $2 million, and the 1988 3-year-old championship. Secretariat’s other top runners over the years included millionaire Tinners Way, two-time winner of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic; North American Grade 1 winners Fiesta Lady, Image of Greatness, Kelly, and Super Staff; Australian Group 1 winner Kingston Rule, winner of the famed Melbourne Cup; English Group 1 winner Dactylographer; and high-earning Japanese multiple group stakes winner Hishi Masaru. He is buried behind the office at Claiborne, where, again, roses were brought to his grave by fans during the recent Kentucky Derby week. “We are so lucky and honored that Secretariat has become synonymous with Claiborne Farm,” current farm president Walker Hancock said. “He has brought hundreds of thousands of visitors to our farm over the years and to the city of Paris. He is part of our past just like we are part of his, and that is something we don’t take for granted.” In the next part of this series, Belmont Stakes week, learn more about Secretariat’s ultimate impact on the breed as a broodmare sire – including helping to write an important chapter in Belmont lore. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.