Sometime after 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of May 5, 1973, groom Eddie Sweat unlatched the front of Stall 21 in Barn 42 at Churchill Downs. Out came Secretariat.
The strapping chestnut colt likely already knew it was a race day. He had been fed less than his usual prodigious quantity of oats—Big Red had a Ruthian appetite—and the hay bundle tied up outside the stall door for snacking had been taken away. Secretariat was walked a few times around the Barn 42 shed row under the nervous gaze of trainer Lucien Laurin, then led away from the barn area to the backstretch of the Louisville, Ky., landmark. More than 130,000 people created a hum of boozy revelry that emanated faintly from the other side of the world’s most famous racetrack.
About 45 minutes before post time, Secretariat and the other 12 contenders for the 99th Kentucky Derby were turned over to lead ponies for the walk around the first turn toward the fabled Twin Spires. Cheers went up at the sight of the horses, and anticipation swelled in the ancient grandstand. Saddled in the paddock and jockeys now onboard, the 13 thoroughbreds returned to the track to the strains of “My Old Kentucky Home” and turned left, jogging toward the starting gate.
