Tea  & Seabiscuit

Steve Wilstein
Associated Press

What a great year it would be...

Searching for Secretariat

Looking for a long shot in the Kentucky Derby?

Try this one: The chance that any horse runs faster than Secretariat did 30 years ago. Trouble is, the odds are so long that the Las Vegas sports books aren't even touching it: 1,000-1 is not too farfetched. There's a better chance of the winner Saturday going on to capture the Triple Crown than there is of breaking Secretariat's records at the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont and the one he might have had in the Preakness if the teletimer hadn't failed. More than 1 million thoroughbred foals have been registered in North America since Secretariat clocked 1:59 2-5 in the 1 1/4 -mile Derby in 1973. None has grown into the phenomenon of speed and stamina and heart that was Big Red.

Yet the search for another Secretariat is what drives owners and breeders and trainers, keeping them in the game when all manner of risks conspire against them. On the beautiful bluegrass pastures at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., Secretariat's home and resting place, the search goes on with a mix of science, intuition and hope.

The limestone base yields calcium to help the foals build strong bones. The nearly 3,000 acres give the horses plenty of space to roam. The rolling landscape, shaded by sycamores and maples, helps them develop their legs and lungs. Creeks and wells provide bountiful water. The stallions -- Seeking The Gold, Pulpit, Monarchos, Coronado's Quest, among others at the moment -- are led to the breeding shed and mated with top mares every morning and afternoon from February through July. Conditions couldn't be more ideal for breeding and raising a champion and still, this year, Claiborne Farm has no horse in the Derby.

``There are so many heartbreaks, it's so tough,'' Gus Koch, Claiborne's assistant farm manager, says. ``You try to get the right matings and then we have something like MRLS (mare reproductive loss syndrome) come in here and we lose all these pregnancies the last two years. It eats at you but you just keep going, you don't give up. You breed them again the next year and you get the foals on the ground and raise them and break the yearlings.

``You finally get a horse to the races and he looks good and he comes up with some kind of a bone problem or leg problem and it takes him out. You can't count the heartaches in this business. But the highs are very high and when they come they make it all worthwhile.'' Claiborne owner Seth Hancock can just look at a young horse and see if it's of any account. Others study X-rays of joints, scopes of the throat, measurements, genetics, ultrasounds of the heart. Secretariat had a huge heart and maybe that helped him run faster.

``Everyone's always looking for another Secretariat,'' Daniel Metzger, president of the Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, says.

Racing may be the sport of kings, but many, like Hancock, work the farms from early morning to night, seven days a week. In central Kentucky, the 2001 MRLS breakout may have taken a $300 million toll. Keeneland canceled its July sale and the impact will be felt by the tracks next year when there are fewer good colts racing. Setbacks like that aside, no one has quite figured out why thoroughbreds haven't gotten faster over the years. Human athletes keep breaking records, so why don't horses that are bred for speed? Human runners have the benefit of better shoes, tracks, nutrition and training methods. There's a greater pool of competitors with more opportunities and richer rewards and, unlike horses, they set out to break records. But humans aren't being bred for the track, and genetically three decades is a blink of the eye that doesn't account for faster times.

Horses sired by champion stallions with champion mares ought to be getting faster, yet Secretariat's records still stand. Is inbreeding causing the breed to go downhill or stagnate? ``All the experts and so-called experts have theories, but no one really knows,'' Metzger says. ``Some say we're breeding too much for speed and not enough for stamina and the horses are too fragile. Others say we're breeding too much for the commercial market. Some say the breed's as strong today as it was when Secretariat or Forego or Kelso ran.''

Maybe it's just a matter of time. It was 25 years from the time Citation won the Triple Crown to the time of Secretariat. Seattle Slew did it in 1977 and now it's been 25 years since Affirmed became the last Triple Crown winner. Silver Charm came close in 1997, as did Real Quiet in 1998, Charismatic in 1999 and War Emblem last year.

``There's a fine line,'' Metzger says, ``that separates the immortal ones from the very, very good ones.''

None of the starters in this Kentucky Derby looks immortal and the record Secretariat set a million horses ago seems a safe bet to last a little longer.

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at swilstein(at) ap.org

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