When Secretariat won the Preakness a half-century ago, he was a star but not yet a legend. His 31-length romp in the Belmont was still to come, and although his back-to-front surge on the first turn at Pimlico was spectacular, the colt’s final time of 1 minute, 55 seconds wasn’t all that noteworthy. It was a second slower than the Preakness mark set two years earlier by Canonero II.
But the dispute over that time was only beginning, and it wasn’t until 2012 when Penny Chenery — Secretariat’s owner — finally succeeded in securing her horse’s Preakness record. She died in 2017 at age 95.
“It was something that Mrs. Chenery really wanted to do in her lifetime,” said Amy Zimmerman, a senior vice president at Santa Anita Park who also works with NBC on its Preakness coverage. “She wanted to set the record straight. She’s the one that really pushed for it to be done.
