@racelegend12: Ron Turcotte remembers the first time he saw Secretariat: "I arrived at Hialeah from New Brunswick. I'd been home for the holidays. I walked by the stall and happened to glance at him. I said, 'Mr. Laurin, who is this pretty boy?' He told me about his royal blood, then said he was too goodlooking to be good on the track. He was an awesome-looking animal." Two days later, Turcotte got on Secretariat for the first time: "He was the kindest of animals, big and clumsy when he was two years old. I got on him a lot that winter. Everybody wanted to. He didn't have the normal temperament of a two-year-old. He wasn't spooky, he was calm, like a big riding pony. Turcotte discovered another characteristic: "He was content to go any speed he wanted." Turcotte and Laurin weren't content to let him dawdle. Like any other two-year-old, Secretariat would be asked for speed, first in workouts, then in races. Working him for the first time at Hialeah, Turcotte says, Secretariat "didn't know which leg to put down first. He was working with three other horses, all two-yearolds. One was Gold Bag, who went on to win stakes races. The three of them just ran away from him. He didn't know what it was about. He didn't know what to do. It didn't take him long to learn. Third or fourth workout. He was very intelligent.”

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Thursday 29 October 2026 01:44:48 GMT