Prove Out - 1973 Woodward Stakes

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2008/08/04/T...
The terrific Prove Out upsets Triple Crown winner Secretariat.
Please refrain from posting inflammatory or denigrating comments about Secretariat. There has been quite enough slagging of his reputation already, and that's a big part of the reason (though not the only one) why I don't allow automatic posting of comments on his videos anymore. Thankfully, that option also helps me control spam on other videos on which I have enabled it.
Thank you for your co-operation.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Thoroughbred
• Horse
• Racing
• 1973
• Woodward
• Stakes
• Prove
• Out
• Secretariat
• Belmont
• Park
• NYRA
• Dave
• Johnson
• New
• York

[RAV52]

In my opinion, the Woodward loss was the perfect prelude to Secretariat showing the entire world what the term "SUPERHORSE" truly meant during his unparalleled Triple Crown run. The lingering doubt some insiders and casual fans had following this race raise the dramatic tension around the TC 100-fold. And we all know how that turned out!!

[cf1970]

@RAV52 I'm afraid you have your "Woods" mixed up. Secretariat lost the Wood Memorial prior to the Derby. The Woodward was run in the fall, on September 29th.

Regardless of all that, thank you for the good comments.

[rscarbro100]

Like Steve Haskins stated. Secretariat was not even intended to race the Woodward & was totally unprepared for it. He was training for the upcoming Man 0' War race on turf with 3 workouts galloping out 1 to 2 miles. End of quote.

Wherever he was in top shape or not that 2:25 1/5 would still have been hard to beat. That 2.26.43 Big Red turned in was still a tremendous time on a muddy track. Maybe tha lack of training was the reason Turcotte said he was tired in that race.

[cf1970]

Yes, absolutely agree with Mr. Haskin's assessment of Secretariat's reason for losing in the Woodward. After all, he was around the horse a lot, and knew very well of Mr. Laurin's special way of training him with strong workouts and finishing with very fast blowouts. I'll take the word of a reputable man with the credentials to back it up over hate-mongers who just find fault with anything anytime they can. I just wish people would accept reasons as reasons, and not excuses. It's very annoying.

[ihasch]

Prove Out's time here is the second fastest in the history of Belmont Park at this distance, exceeded only by Secretariat himself. For example, Prove Out's time was better than Easy Goer's time in the 1989 Belmont Stakes, a time that Secretariat almost matched here. The loses to Onion and Angle Light were of flukish; Secretariat defeated both horses decisively. Secretariat i/m/o wins this one with his A game, but PO ran a hell of a race. Upsets happen (Man O War reference).

[WPWW14words]

I have a hard time believing that Prove Out could have beaten a 100% Sec.

[sl7293]

Even though Secretariat likely wasn't adequately prepared, Prove Out, at the top of his game, is arguably the best horse he ever faced. Prove Out would go on to crush Secretariat's great stablemate, Riva Ridge by 33 lengths in the Jockey Club Gold Cup after the two of them got locked in a suicidal speed duel in the 1st 6F of that 2 mile race. Riva Ridge was totally wasted after that, but Prove Out hung on to win in a time only 0.8 secs off Kelso's WR. He combined great speed and stamina.

[MelC54]

@cf1970 The last 1/4 mile was where the lack of training for this race showed itself. This was where the stamina, so evident in the Belmont Stakes, would have shown itself and Secretariat would have pulled away to win, probably by a length, maybe 2 lengths. It would have been close, like Sham at Churchill and Pimlico.

[sl7293]

@bbmtge I think Damascus's victory in the 2 mile JCGC only 1 sec off Kelso's WR following a 3 year old campaign where he ran 2 races per month for each of the 7 previous months prior to the JCGC ranks right up there with this one.The JCGC was the 15th of 16 races D ran at age 3. In that yr he won races at virtually every distance from 6F to 2 miles & defeated 2 of the all time greats. He never ducked any horse or any distance at age 3, ran all the time whether well or ill, & still won 12 of 16.

[ubotstudios11]

:::Attention::: bot1032 from ubotstudios com approves of cf1970's videos. That is all.

[cf1934]

@MelC54 His record was 39: 9-6-4! In the fall he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup. He had the 4th best time ever for th 2 mile JCGC. THE other 3 were run by Kelso

[cf1934]

@JSanity01 Kelso set the world record for 2miles on the dirt and came back 11 days later to set the american track record on grass.

[cf1934]

@MelC54 I don't think this was considered a muddy track! It looked more like a sloppy track whicch is close to being a fast track.

[bbmtge]

An additonal footnote to all of the well-informed comments. According to Nack, Sec was never more than 80%-90% after his illness. Couple that to the effort in the MC and complete lack of preparation for the WW and I am amazed that on a compromised surface Sec managed somewhere around 2 26 and 3/5th's. Somebody tell me of another horse producing that performance under the same set of facts/circumstances.