Secretariat's Belmont and Triple Crown in 1973 remains unmatched

OCALA — The 2023 Belmont Stakes will be run on Saturday. As always, there will be no way it could match what happened in 1973.

"Everybody is in line, and they’re off. … Secretariat away very well, and in good position on the rail."

That was the start of track announcer Chic Anderson's call. It has become part of the legend that was cemented that day.

Fifty years later, odes are being written and statues are still going up. The Kentucky Derby Museum opened a new exhibit: "Secretariat: America's Horse." Woodford Reserve released a new bottle of bourbon commemorating Secretariat.

Given the undying fascination, it's telling how the rarest remnant of Big Red has almost been lost in time.

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To find it, you have to head west on State Road 326 just north of Ocala. After five miles of rolling countryside, there's a small sign on the right for Bridlewood Farm.

Pull into the office at the front of the 2,200-acre expanse, and you’ll be greeted by administrative assistant Christina Clary. She’ll probably know why you showed up.

"You’re here to see Maritime?" she asks.

If you’ve given her a heads-up, Clary will have time to crank up a four-wheeled Gator buggy and take you for a ride. In the back of the stallion complex there's a paddock nestled against 100 acres of forest. The lone occupant might look strangely familiar.

Chestnut coat. White blaze down his nose.

It's not you-know-who somehow come back to life. It's his last surviving son, Maritime Traveler, quietly wiling the days away as a Marion County retiree.

"He's living the good life," Clary said.

What a long, strange life it's been.

"Sham on the outside, Secretariat in second, and then a large gap. … Down the backstretch, it's almost a match race now."

One way or another, everybody related to Secretariat. But who could really relate to being his son?

Ludwig van Beethoven II? Babe Ruth Jr.?

How could any pony fill Secretariat's horseshoes?

He was the hero America needed as it wearied of Watergate and Vietnam and an oil embargo that had a gallon of gas skyrocketing to 53 cents.

The 1973 Belmont was like Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. Everybody remembers where they were when Secretariat blazed into immortality.

Just four months later, he retired to make new Secretariats. Big Red sired 663 foals over the next 16 years. Among the last was a colt born May 15, 1990, in Ontario.

His mother was Oceana, which is probably where he got his name. Nobody's sure. Maritime Traveler was named by Arthur Appleton, the Chicago industrialist who founded Bridlewood Farm in 1976.

Oceana's father was Northern Dancer, the 1964 Kentucky Derby winner. With a bloodline like that, Appleton plopped down $55,000 at the Keeneland Yearling Sale. He probably thought he got a bargain.

There was only one problem with Maritime Traveler.

"He just didn't care to be a racehorse," Clary said.

"On the turn, it's Secretariat. It looks like he's opening. The lead is increasing. It's three, three-and-a-half."

Parents and horse breeders can do everything right, and their kids can still turn out wrong. The difference is human offspring have options.

Hank Williams Jr. could have become an accountant. Maritime Traveler had no choice whether to go into the family business.

That's how he found himself getting stuffed into a starting stall at Woodbine Racetrack in 1992. The gates clanged open and 11 horses bolted out. Maritime Traveler was the last one across the finish line.

He may have looked like his old man, but he wasn't wired like him. There was no competitive fire. It was as if Rembrandt's son just wanted to fingerpaint.

Maritime Traveler came in fourth in his next race. It would be the best finish of his career. Three races later, the Bridlewood braintrust decided to retire him.

Career earnings: $1,572.

A lot of racing duds are sold for pennies on the dollar. They don't go to the glue factories, but they can end up in equine rescue farms.

That's what has happened to Secretariat's only other living offspring, a mare named Trusted Company. She finished 10th in her only race, got sold and bounced around to a few farms. Now 34, she's living out her days at Bright Futures Farm, a horse rescue mission in Pennsylvania.

Maritime Traveler was one of the lucky ones. Appleton loved his horses regardless of whether they were studs or duds. He shipped Maritime Traveler to Bridlewood Farm.

It was probably a good thing the horse didn't ask what he might end up doing in Florida.

"Secretariat is blazing along. Three-quarters of a mile in one-oh-nine and four-fifths!"

The breeding business is really just the baby-making business. As with humans, certain things must occur.

Boy meets girl. Sparks fly. Nature takes its course

But first, girl must be interested in boy. That's where the occupation of "teaser" comes in.

There are two main duties. The guy horse (stallion) will hang around the ladies (broodmares), getting them comfortable with having a male around.

His mere presence helps get the broodmares into heat. Then it's off to the breeding stable. That's where teasers really earn their oats.

If it's the first time the mare has mated, she might kick and flail as the stallion mounts her. Owners don't want to expose high-priced breeding stallions to injury, so they have a teaser do the job.

Well, not the complete job.

An apron-like shield is worn to prevent the teaser from impregnating the mare. Just as things are getting really romantic, the teaser is pulled to the side and Mr. Stud swoops in to finish the job.

"I always playfully say that there is probably no lower job on the horse farm than being a teaser," said Bridlewood general manager George Isaacs.

A lot of would-be teasers get irritable and aggressive. Maritime Traveler was always a gentleman. He never played the Secretariat card and intimated he was too good for the task at hand.

"He took to it really well," Clary said.

He started in the broodmare barn. Then Bridlewood's breeding shed teaser died, and Maritime Traveler started pulling double duty.

Bridlewood produced more than 100 stakes winners over the years, so something was going right in the breeding shed. It all began with a little teasing.

"Secretariat is widening now. He is moving like a tremendous machine."

Appleton died in 2008 at age 92. His family decided to get out of the horse business and put Bridlewood Farm up for sale.

Institutional memory faded as employees drifted away. As far as most people knew, Maritime Traveler was just another horse.

Media mogul John Malone bought Bridlewood in 2013. He shared Appleton's love of horses and recharged the farm's breeding and training businesses.

About five years ago, Maritime Traveler lost his teasing giddy-up. He’d earned a pension, so Isaacs set him up in a nice retirement paddock.

There's a cinder block shed with a fan, a water trough, and an oak tree in the middle of the three-acre spread. Maritime Traveler has it all to himself, other than when deer or turkey wander in from the woods.

He was all but forgotten, except by stable workers who looked after him. Then a couple of racing publications began searching for Secretariat's progeny.

Big Red died from a hoof disease in 1989, and his offspring were quickly fading away. A researcher found Maritime Traveler and wrote about it.

"That's kind of how he came back to life," Clary said.

"They’re in the stretch. Secretariat has taken a 22-length lead. He is going to be the Triple Crown winner! Here comes Secretariat to the wire. An unbelievable, an amazing performance."

It's a bright summer morning and Maritime Traveler notices Clary has pulled into his pasture. He ambles over and starts nuzzling her.

Up close, you can see his eyes are slightly red and his back is swayed.

"He would be considered in his late 80s or early 90s now," Clary said. "But he looks really good for an old gentleman."

She thinks Maritime Traveler knows something is up. Strangers have been coming by more frequently the past few months. He's had no problem with that.

"People mean he gets carrots, so his personality has come around a lot," Clary said. "He's quite the little lover."

He’ll munch on his favorite snack and wander away. Visitors will be temporarily transported back to the summer of ’73.

They’ll see the blue-and-white silks and jockey Ron Turcotte glancing back at the fading field of mere mortals. They’ll see that 31-length win. They’ll see that tremendous machine.

No one ever called Maritime Traveler that. He could never be Secretariat. No horse could.

But all any parent can really ask is that their kids do the best they can in life. As Maritime Traveler approaches the finish line, his dad has nothing to be ashamed of.

Your boy ran a pretty good race.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley