By Bill Finley
It was a year and a half ago when Patricia McQueen heard that there was a son of Secretariat named Innkeeper living at the Virginia Tech MARE Center. A Secretariat fan and a photographer who always had a particular interest in the offspring of the 1973 Triple Crown winner, she grabbed her camera and penned a story about Innkeeper for the website thoroughbredracing.com.
That's how it began, her quest to find and photograph the remaining progeny of Secretariat. It has taken McQueen all over the country and she has found nine. She has turned the photos and stories of the nine into a calendar. The proceeds will go to equine charities and the calendar is available here.
“This has kind of been an accidental project,” McQueen said. “A friend of mine is in the Mid-Atlantic region and she knew of Innkeeper who is at the Virginia Tech Center, so I went to see him and I ran the story on thoroughbredracing.com and all of a sudden we got some hits. It kind of ballooned from there. Once the story on Innkeeper hit we started some getting some information on others. I started thinking I have to go see these horses.”
She has been able to track down nine living descendants of Secretariat. The youngest are two soon-to-be 28-year-olds, who are from Secretariat's final crop. The oldest is General Poppy, who will turn 35 on Jan. 1.
Despite exhaustive research, McQueen is not sure that there are only nine remaining. These are the only ones she could find.
“I have to hope there are others and that this publicity will drag them out of woodwork,” she said. “His last crop is about to be 28, and that's not that old. You hear of a lot of horses that are still living in their late twenties. I'm also thinking there could be some in Europe that I don't yet know about.”
Based in Massachusetts, McQueen's search has taken her across the U.S., as far away as Washington State and as close as Pennsylvania. She found one in Ontario. She has met and photographed eight of the nine in person. Most live on small farms with owners who, she says, “adore the horses and take great care of them.” She has found only one story with an ugly side to it. A mare named Albany's Secret was found abandoned by a horse rescue group in California, but was saved and placed at Victory Alliance Ranch, a facility in Alabama that uses horses to work with troubled children and veterans with post traumatic stress disorder.
Her favorites?
“One is General Poppy because he's almost 35,” she said. “That's just incredible. He's still got spunk and the fact that he is that old makes him special to me. He looks nothing like his daddy. I've spent a lot of time with him and he's just a grand old man. The other one is Fast Market, who is in Western Pennsylvania. He looks a lot like his daddy; a chestnut with a star and white feet. He's 32. He raced 10 years. Made 144 starts, more than any of the Secretariats. He was in bottom-level claimers for the longest time and is still happy and healthy at 32. That shows you if they are well cared for a horse can do well. He has so much personality, he's so much fun. Even at 32 he still gets down and rolls every day. He even has a Facebook page.”
Along with Innkeeper, Albany's Secret, General Poppy and Fast Market, the others are Border Run, Secret of the Seas, Secretariat's Fire, Time Alert and Torbay.
McQueen never saw Secretariat race in person, but did visit him and photograph him during his days at Claiborne Farm. With Secretariat having died 28 years ago, her passion has turned to his children.
“A few years ago I found myself looking for new things to do with my life and I started thinking that people never thought Secretariat was a good sire,” she said. “Obviously, he was a great broodmare sire. Gosh knows what would we would have done without A.P. Indy and Storm Cat and they trace to him. People knocked him as a sire. I didn't think that was fair. I started looking at his sons and daughters and thought they must have great stories. There are books on Secretariat all over, but nobody really cared about his offspring. I just thought it would be good to start exploring it. A lot of them are lesser known, but with a little luck could have been better known. I just thought this was a good angle and that I could carry on the Secretariat torch by showcasing his sons and daughters and telling their stories. It was my own little tribute.”
If you know of any other living descendants of Secretariat you can reach McQueen at SecretariatLegends@gmail.com.
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