In the Preakness, Turcotte made a bold decision to launch a spectacular move on the first turn. After taking the lead, Secretariat was never challenged, and he won by two and a half lengths. Sham again settled for second. Secretariat’s final time was recorded as 1:55, a second slower than the Preakness record. But clockers recorded faster times, and by Monday, the stewards voted to change the official time to their clocker’s mark of 1:54⅖, still short of the record. It wasn’t until 2012, after Chenery hired companies to conduct a forensic review of the race using technology that hadn’t existed in 1973, that the Maryland Racing Commission agreed to change the official time to 1:53, establishing the record at last.

Then came the Belmont, his pièce de résistance. If Anderson’s call of the race was the pinnacle of his lyrical craft, then a picture credited to the track photographer Bob Coglianese was its visual counterpart. It shows Secretariat head on, hooves hovering above the track in full flight, as Turcotte looks over his left shoulder at the timer that would register Secretariat as running the Belmont in 2:24, two seconds faster than any horse before or after. A blue-and-white checked pole — the color of Chenery’s silks — marks the margin of victory, almost unbelievable in scope. “I still had a lot of horse when I passed the wire,” Turcotte said. “He wasn’t even sweating.”