Dr. Thomas Swerczek, head pathologist at the University of Kentucky, did not weigh Secretariat’s heart, but stated, “We just stood there in stunned silence.  We couldn’t believe it. The heart was perfect.  There were no problems with it.  It was just this huge engine.”

According to Wikipedia the average horse heart weighs 7.9 pounds.  Though they do say it could weigh twice that weight.

An extremely large heart in a horse is a trait that occasionally occurs in thoroughbreds.  It is hypothesized to be linked to a genetic condition referred to as the “x factor” and is traced to the historic racehorse Eclipse.  After his death in 1789 Eclipse’s heart was found to larger than most and weighed 14 pounds

Secretariat’s heart was estimated to weigh 22 pounds.  Secretariat was a freak.

It is said that pedigree research traces Secretariat’s lineage on his mother’s side to a daughter of Eclipse.

Yesterday, for the first time in the 145 year history of the Kentucky Derby, the winner was disqualified for a racing foul.

The winner was a horse named Maximum Security.

Maximum Security ran his first race in December as a two year old and won a $16,000 Maiden Claiming race at Gulfstream in Florida.  From that humble beginning he went on to win three more races including the Florida Derby wire to wire.  In other words he led from start to finish.

Wednesday evening I sat down with my printed copy of the Racing Form to begin my studying as I would typically do before derby day.  After watching his performance in the Florida Derby, next to Maximum Security’s name I wrote the word Freak with a question mark.

This horse in my opinion was potentially a freak.  Another Secretariat maybe.  Another possible Triple Crown winner. He was undefeated in his young life, his running style to go to the front and win wire to wire.

If he could win the Kentucky Derby in this fashion, maybe he would prove to be something special, something historic.

In my forty years of following thoroughbred horse racing, a jockey’s objection rarely led to a change in the finish in the race.  A racing stewards’ inquiry generally did however.  But in this case there was no stewards’ inquiry.  But twenty two minutes after “the greatest two minutes in sports” the racing stewards agreed with the jockey’s objection and Maximum Security, number seven in the race, was disqualified from his first place finish and placed 17^th.

For me that was a long 22 minutes.  You see, the 3, 7, 19, and 20 (Country House who finished second was number 20) were the horses I chose to be in my exacta.  At least at the time that’s what I thought.

Because this morning when I was writing this, I decided to look back at my account and revisit what could have been.  To my surprise, I learned that the actual numbers that I boxed were 3,8,19, and 20.  Apparently I had made a mistake and punched in 8 instead of 7.  Another Sir Sydney moment for me, only this time it didn’t have the happy ending.

When I showed this to Kim this morning she said, “See, God spared you the disappointment.”

My wife is right about many things, I think she has the x factor.

Because the only thing I think that would be more disappointing than having your winning exacta disqualified, would be having your winning exacta not disqualified and then learning that you mistakenly bet the wrong numbers.

The sad thing about all this is we may never know how good this horse really is.  How would he have compared to Secretariat?  Would we have had a new national obsession?  Another Triple Crown winner?

It is true Maximum Security will now be something historic, but unfortunately not for the reasons that might have been.