My Pretty Pony Trivia Quiz

Answer: Secretariat

Sired by Bold Ruler out of Somethingroyal, Secretariat won 16 of 21 races in his short but impressive career. In 1973, at the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs he set a track record for one 1/4 miles in 1:59 2/5. In fact, during the Derby he ran each quarter-mile segment faster than the one before.

At the Belmont Stakes he set a *world* record of a mile-and-a-half on a dirt track at 2:24. His time at Pimlico was a little more contentious, but in 2012 the Maryland Racing Commission determined that Secretariat had won the 1973 Preakness in 1:53 flat, a new stakes record.

The syndicate that Penny Chenery had established required Secretariat to retire after age three, so his last race was the Man O' War Stakes, in which he set yet another track record at Belmont Park.

He failed to produce colts of his calibre, but sired impressive broodmares. Upon his death in 1989 it was discovered that he had a heart 2.75 times the normal size for a thoroughbred.

Answer: Genuine Risk

Genuine Risk began her racing career by winning at Gulfstream Park and Aqueduct, and finished third against the colts in the Wood Memorial. She was the second filly to win the Kentucky Derby in a decade that boasted two female Derby champs. (Regret in 1915 was the first filly to win the Derby, and Winning Colors was the third, in 1988.) She retired at age four to be a broodmare, but she produced no foals that raced.

Her owner, however, explained, "If I had a choice between a good broodmare and a top racehorse, I'll take the racehorse."

Answer: Man o' War

As a two-year-old, Man o' War carried more weight than any other horse that age. His owner, Samul D. Riddle, believed that May was too early in the year for a horse to run as far as a mile and a quarter, the length of the Derby, so he would not enter Man o' War.

In the Preakness, Man o' War set a track record for the mile in 1:38 3/5, and in the Belmont he set another track record for one 3/8 miles in 2:14 1/5. Later that year he won the Dwyer Stakes, the Travers Stakes, the Stuyvesant Handicap, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup. No other horse would race him in the Lawrence Realization Stakes, except for Hoodwinks, who lost by a devastating 100 lengths to this invincible horse. Man o' War sired War Admiral, the fourth U.S. Triple Crown champion (1937).

Answer: Seattle Slew

Unfortunately, after the Triple Crown (1977), Seattle Slew could not keep up his undefeated streak, and lost in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park Racetrack in July 1977. Still, he won the Eclipse Award for American Horse of the Year in 1977. Then he was beset with some health issues; for a time in 1978 he stopped eating and wouldn't stop sweating, and he had trouble standing. Nonetheless, Seattle Slew recovered and was named Champion Older Horse that year, although he lost to Exceller by a nose in the Jockey Gold Cup.

He retired after that, and died in his sleep at age 28 in 2002. "The Blood-Horse" ranked Seattle Slew the #9 horse of the 20th century. His legacy continued after his passing; his granddaughter, Rags to Riches, won the 2007 Belmont Stakes.

Answer: Phar Lap

Phar Lap's name aptly comes from the Thai word for lightning. Between 1929 and 1932, Australia's wonder horse won 37 of 51 starts. He was shipped to the United States in 1932, but only raced once before he died suddenly of hemorrhage. Whether he died of poisoning by the mob or whether he died of a gastroenteric bacterial infection remained disputed for decades.

A 2008 study confirmed death from an arsenic overdose, although whether the dosage was accidental or deliberate could not be determined. Like Secretariat, Phar Lap was known as "Big Red" and, also like the U.S. champion, he was found upon his death to have a larger than average heart, half-again the size of a typical Thoroughbred's.

Answer: Ruffian

Standing at an imposing 17 hands, Ruffian won her maiden race by 15 lengths. The "Queen of the Track" set a stakes record at the Sorority Stakes, a track record in the Spinaway, and many more records besides! No record was matched until 2009, when Rachel Alexandra finished the Mother Goose Stakes almost one 1/2 secnds faster.

Her final competition was a match race against Kentucky Derby Winner, Foolish Pleasure. She was ahead by a nose when she broke he right foreleg. After surgery, Ruffian thrashed and flailed and shattered more bones, and ultimately she had to be put down. "Blood-Horse" magazine ranked Ruffian #35 in its top 100 racehorses of the 20th century.

In her honor, Belmont Park initiated the Ruffian Handicap in 1976; in 2010 it moved to Saratoga.

Answer: Kingston

Foaled in 1884, Kingston won 89 races, more than any other racehorse in the 19th and 20th centuries (and the first decade of the 21st). He continued to race for years after most champion Thoroughbreds are retired to stud -- and he was still winning! At age eight, he won 13 of 20 starts, and at the ripe old age of ten, he won four of nine races against far younger horses.

He died at age 28 in 1912. Kingston was one of the first horses to be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame when it opened in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1955.

Answer: Regret

In her very first race, Regret skipped over the maiden and allowance races and ran against colts in the Saratoga Special -- and won! She handily won the 1915 Kentucky Derby by two lengths. Owner Harry Payne Whitney declined to enter his winning horse in the Preakness or the Belmont, but Regret defeated the Belmont winner, The Finn, in another race.

In 1917 she ran in the Brooklyn Handicap against other Kentucky Derby winners, including Old Rosebud and Omar Kkayyam. She outraced them, but her stablemate Borrow beat her by a nose. Regret was less successful as a broodmare, as Revenge was the only stakes winner she foaled.

In her honor Churchill Downs has held since 1970 the Regret Stakes, a mid-June turf race of 9 furlongs (1 1/8 miles) for three-year-old fillies.

Her only losses were to colts; no other filly ever defeated Regret.

Answer: Camarero

His name means "waiter" in Spanish. Between April 1953 and August 1955 he won 56 consecutive races. Unfortunately, as Puerto Rico racetrack regulations forbid betting on prohibitive favorites, for most of his winning streak no one could bet on this speed demon! Camarero never raced in the USA, Europe, or Australia, but he was well known around the world in his day.

Answer: Seabiscuit

Raised on Claiborne Farm, Seabiscuit was not initially seen to be a great horse, and he was raced heavily -- thirty-five times as a two-year-old. Trainer Tom Smith noticed the colt at an Allowance race, and he turned him into a champion. Although he lost the 1937 Santa Anita Handicap to Rosemont by a nose, Seabiscuit won 11 of 15 races that year and became the leading money winner in the USA.

In the "Match of the Century" at Pimlico in 1938, Seabiscuit defeated War Admiral -- son of Man o' War and a Triple Crown winner, as well as American Horse of the Year. Seabiscuit finally won the Santa Anita Handicap in 1940, and now a statue of him stands at the racetrack.

The "Saturday Evening Post" described him that April as "the Horatio Alger hero of the turf, the horse that came up from nothing on his own courage and will to win."