35 Years Ago Tomorrow

Two amazing facts about the 1973 Kentucky Derby:

1) Sham broke the Derby record that day, finishing the mile-and-a-quarter race in 1:59 4/5. No horse up to that point (in 98 Derbies) had ever finished the race in less than two-minutes.

But Secretariat beat Sham by 2 1/2 lengths (!!!), finishing in 1:59 2/5, which, after 35 years, remains the fastest time ever in the Kentucky Derby.

Since the 1973 Derby, only one other horse has ever managed to finish the race in less than 2 minutes: Monarchos, in 2001.

2) Secretariat ran each quarter-mile segment of the Derby faster than the previous one. Whereas most horses are tiring at the end of a race, especially in a mile-and-a-quarter race, Secretariat was actually accelerating in the last quarter-mile.