It was a good thing that before the results of the summer races at Saratoga Race Course executives with the Phillip Morris tobacco company decided to put up $250,000 to sponsor a race at Belmont Park.

The Marlboro Cup, named after the foremost brand of Philip Morris cigarettes, was scheduled for Sept. 15, 1973, and was at first planned as a match race between Secretariat, that year’s Triple Crown winner, and Riva Ridge, winner of the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Both colts were owned by Meadow Stable, inherited by Penny Chenery Tweedy and her two siblings following the death of their father, Christopher Chenery, and trained by Lucien Laurin.

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The sheen came off that plan when Secretariat lost the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga to Onion, and Riva Ridge, after setting a world record in the July 4 Brooklyn Handicap, went up to Saratoga and lost an allowance race on the grass before returning at the Spa and narrowly defeating Halo in an allowance contest on dirt. Thus, the Marlboro field was widened to include the pair of Meadow Stable standard-bearers as well as Cougar II, Kennedy Road, Key to the Mint, Travers Stakes winner Annihilate ’em, and Onion.

Secretariat had entered and exited the Aug. 4 Whitney a sick horse. He remained at Saratoga, where he was walked for a week and then began jogging and getting up to a gallop. When Travers day came, Secretariat’s participation was limited to being paraded on the racetrack.

“A normal horse, being that sick, would have been done for the year,” said Secretariat’s regular rider, Ron Turcotte. “He was not a normal horse. He had to be made of steel. When he started feeling better, I started working him faster, and it was unbelievable how he came back — lively and getting better by the day.”

Both Secretariat and Riva Ridge were training beautifully leading up to the Marlboro Cup, with Secretariat getting his usual five-furlong pipe cleaner four days before the race, timed in :57. Turcotte had his choice of mounts.

“I was working Riva also,” he said. “I knew Secretariat was the best horse, but I didn’t know if he’d be back in time for the race, so I reserved the right to ride Riva. When Secretariat started working real big, I knew right then. They were both reaching a peak, but it was not a difficult decision.”

Turcotte ended up aboard Secretariat with Eddie Maple getting the call on Riva Ridge. A crowd of 48,000 turned out for the race, roaring as the gates opened and Onion went to the front, followed by Riva Ridge and Kennedy Road. Secretariat, breaking from the outside gate, got away well but ceded the lead and raced fifth on the outside as the pacesetters ripped off fast fractions.

“They came out of there running,” remembered Turcotte. “I knew there was a lot of speed, so I just let Secretariat come out of the gate on his own, and when we hit the half-mile pole I picked his head up and chirped to him. He took off and picked them off pretty good.”

Riva Ridge grabbed the lead from Onion on the turn, but his big chestnut stablemate was looming large on the outside.

Secretariat, with Penny Chenery leading the way, after 1973 Marlboro Cup. (Bob Coglianese/NYRA)

“I didn’t want to challenge Riva Ridge right away,” noted Turcotte. “I waited. I wanted to give him a chance to go as far as he could. Then I chirped to Secretariat, and he flew by and set a world record [1:45 2/5 for 1 1/8 mile].”

Riva Ridge finished second, 3 1/2 lengths behind Secretariat and two lengths in front of Cougar II.

Penny Chenery had always held a soft spot in her heart for Riva Ridge, whose exploits and purse earnings had saved Meadow Stable when it was teetering on the edge of insolvency the previous year. She is fond of pointing out that he became a millionaire in earnings before Secretariat. But she was realistic about the Marlboro Cup.

“In my heart I knew Secretariat could outrun Riva,” Chenery said in 1993. “I just wanted them to run 1-2. I was watching them both during the race. It was a very good race; Cougar made a strong move at the end and almost caught Riva, and the Canadian horse, Kennedy Road, was very good. I really wanted to beat Key to the Mint because I wanted to beat [trainer] Elliot [Burch, after Key to the Mint was named champion 3-year-old male of 1972 over Riva Ridge].”

Thus, after his Belmont victory, Secretariat had run in the Arlington Invitational, a race written for him; the Whitney, in which he was compromised by illness; and the Marlboro Cup, a race created with him as the cornerstone. The fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants campaign was to continue with a planned switch to the grass next, but that too was amended in another last-minute turnaround that would again send Secretariat down to defeat.

BloodHorse Daily is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown season by tapping Lenny Shulman's wonderful look back at each of his 1973 races on the calendar dates of those events.