Secretariat

When a Leggy Foal Comes into the World

 On a Night Herons Were Driving thru the Waves of Night, March 30th, 1970
 On That Night Was Somethingroyal
 Those Who Eased Secretariat from Somethingroyal


Scrambling and Scampering, Leaping and Jogging

After a Week or Two
Bigger than Most Foals
A Bruiser,” Some
As the Days Get Longer
He Was Different


Mother’s Buck and Yowl for Their Stolen Jewels

Before He’d Gulped His Crushed Oats
Now He Can’t Smell her, Feel Her
Into the Night like the Other Weanlings
Weaning Day, the Babies
Like the Other Just Weaned Foals
A Different Morning Smell


Feeling Touch as a Song They Can Dance To

It was Always One Move at a Time
Glittering
What the Horse Must Feel
Colts Chasing Each Other in the Field
Later in the Soft Sand


The Gorgeous Red Chestnut Growing into What Was to Come

When You See a Horse Glistening in the Morning Light
His Nostrils, Soft as Violets
Before the Trip South in the Still Black Early Morning, Only the Slight Light
Bringing Secretariat to Florida
After the Last Ice Slides from the Leaves
Inside the Barn
He’s a Nice Colt and He’s Just a Baby, You Take Care of Him”
Almost Too Beautiful Some Said
I Have to Get the Fat Off Him First, I Have to Teach Him to Run. He’s Big, Awkward, and Doesn’t Know What to Do with Himself”
Night Blues, Secretariat Waiting
A Horse that Sleeps Mostly Standing Up
Too Plump and Pretty


A Chubby Clown Leaves as a Prince

April 1, 1972
Secretariat Was Wild
His First Race
Days after Aqueduct
Secretariat Can Run Fast and Far. I Think He’ll Go Down in History as Another Man O’War
Horse Heaven
Under the Rippling Jade of Elms
Opening Day, Saratoga
He Just Floats
The Hopeful
Saratoga, Dark Day at the Track
Hanging Back, as If Gathering Himself
That August
Leaving Saratoga, as Horses Load Into the Vans
He Wasn’t like the Dark Beauty
Years Later Will Secretariat Remember
Saratoga Photograph
Past the Gingerbread House, Guitar Moan from CafÉ Lena on Phila


Like Something Out of a Fairy Tale

His Personality Reached Out
On the Night Before Any Races
Drawing the Place for the Post
Ron Turcotte
The Derby
Derby Day
Like Flowers Put in Cool
After a Clear Start
After the Race


Other Horses Saw a Shadow Coming from Behind and Knew it Wasn’t Their Shadow

Before the Preakness
He Looks like a Rolls Royce in a Field of Volkswagens”
Coming from the Place
You Know (He) Sorta like an Airplane Jus’ Put It on the Runway—When You Wants and Take Off Woosh”
Thinking of Secretariat after the Preakness
After the Preakness, thru Dripping Larch and Maples Heading Out from Stall 41


It’s Like He’s Not Real

You Get Some Good Hosses You Can Figure Gonna”
That’s an Awful Lot of People Standin in That Stall”
On the Night Before the Belmont
Gloomy and Gray Morning
Just Before the Belmont
On the Day of the Race
Hours Before They Announced
Just Before Post Time
As the Gates Crashed
Like a Train Tearing Up the Rails
With the Wind, the Silks
After the Applause Accompanying Secretariat Home
After the Belmont
It was a New World
His Face on Time
200 Fan Mails a Day
On the Day Secretariat Left Belmont
After the Last of the Triple Crown Wins


Does he Dream Other Barns and Stables

Some Nights Secretariat Dreams
Secretariat’s Dream #17
What’s Left


Even Grown Men Are Crying Blues

When the Great Horse Leaves the Track for the Last Time
In One Photo of Big Red
Photograph: Final Farewell at Aqueduct
Bringing Secretariat to Clairborne, November 12, 1973
Those Who Never Cried
Photograph: Ron Turcotte Saying Goodbye
Photograph: Boarding the Plane
Photo of Secretariat in the Fuselage Going Back      
In That Photograph
On the Plane to Clairborne Photograph
In This Photograph the Plane Seems Rounded
Photograph: Secretariat with Eddie Sweat on the Plane Back to Clairborne
The Blue and White Chartered Plane
At Lexington
On the Day He Comes to Clairborne


For Company, Torn Leaves Perfumed With the Scent of Mares

On This November Sunday
Secretariat
On One of His Last Nights Secretariat Dreams
When Secretariat Dreamt
Mist Slides from Blue Moonlight
Photograph at Clairborne Early Before Visitors Come to Press Against the Fence, Spray from the Horse’s Bath in the Air like Snowflakes
Early Quiet Morning
Between Mares at the Stud Farm
When Lightning Came
In the Fields of Spring
Hot July, With the Sky Cloudless, Cobalt
In Other Fields
Was Secretariat Puzzled?
Past White Swans and the Century Oaks


Some Say Horses Know: He Was Led to the Van, a Shank Clipped Over Him

Each Year the Red Horse, a Little Less Red
Tho a Horse Can Never Tell You His Dreams
For Stallions, Touch is a Fleeting Pleasure
The Laminae
After Those Gorgeous Feet
Is Secretariat Learning New Music?
If You Part of the Animal You Got to Cry, That’s When the Sad Moment Come”
In Those Last Days
Sucker-Punched
No, a Horse Can’t Tell You His Dream
Some Say Horses Know When
That Morning


Too Perfect to Replicate

The Heart of an Average Horse Weighs about 9 Lbs
Not Like Any Other Horse
Foaling Barn Photo
It Was as if No One Could Find Anything Dark
In the Dream of the Healed Hoof
Photograph of Clairborne, Secretariat’s Last Home
Past His Stone, the Willow