"From here on out," Mrs. Penny Tweedy remarked a few days before the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, "it's Turns and Rolaids." There seemed to be no grounds for nervous indigestion. After all, Tweedy's three-year-old colt Secretariat was heavily favored to win the Wood as a prelude to collecting the roses at the Kentucky Derby this week. But Secretariat faltered inexplicably and finished a mediocre third behind Angle Light and Sham. Suddenly this Saturday's contest at Churchill Downs shapes up as more of a horse race than the smart money had previously predicted.
In fact, a modicum of suspense was needed to save the Derby from tedium. No one wants to bet against a horse that seems invincible, and invincible is exactly what Secretariat appeared to be before the Wood. As a two-year-old, the offspring of Bold Ruler had dominated his peers, winning seven of nine races. He was subsequently voted Horse of the Year, an honor usually reserved for older thoroughbreds. After being syndicated for the record sum of $6,080,000, he opened the 1973 season with convincing victories in the Bay Shore and Gotham Stakes.
No Punch. His loss in the Wood, coming only a fortnight before the Derby, rekindled flagging hopes in the stables of competitors. In an eight-horse field, he lagged slightly after breaking from an outside post position, then failed to make up sufficient ground with a belated stretch drive. "He just didn't have his usual punch," Jockey Ron Turcotte said afterward. Despite the defeat, Secretariat still remains the shortest-priced early betting favorite in Derby history. Last week the odds on Secretariat were 4 to 5.
Some of this support may be a product of his physical appeal. He is a strapping chestnut colt—1,115 lbs. with a girth measuring an imposing 75 ½ in. —and, like Man o' War, is nicknamed "Big Red." "He's like a big bull running against a bunch of kids," one trainer says. "He's the biggest colt I've ever trained," says Lucien Laurin, "and maybe the best looking." "I call him 'Sexy,' " says Penny Tweedy, the proprietress of Meadow Stables. Fans have responded with enthusiasm, wildly cheering every victory, lustily booing him in defeat.
For Laurin and Tweedy, a victory in the Derby would embellish what has already become an unusual success story. Now 60, Laurin reportedly was on the verge of retiring to his native Quebec in 1971 when Tweedy hired him "on an interim basis" to replace his son, Roger, who had moved to the stable owned by Ogden Phipps. The elder Laurin promptly produced the stable's first Derby winner, Riva Ridge, which took last season's Belmont Stakes as well.