With an off-the-pace victory in the Bay Shore Stakes and a front-end triumph in the Gotham Stakes to welcome in his 3-year-old campaign, Secretariat had taken the requisite steps that would land him in Louisville on the first Saturday in May to pursue his major goal — victories in the Triple Crown events. All that remained was one more tightener in the April 21, 1973, Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct two weeks after the Gotham.

The Wood, at 1 1/8 miles, represented a perfect progression from the seven-eighths of the Bay Shore and the one-mile Gotham, and with his 2-year-old form clearly transferred seamlessly to his sophomore campaign, all systems were go for the Meadow Stable color-bearer riding a 10-race winning streak.

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His connections — owner Penny Tweedy, trainer Lucien Laurin, and jockey Ron Turcotte — had learned that the strapping chestnut thrived on tough morning moves between races.

“You had to put a lot of work into him and ask a lot of him,” said Penny (Tweedy) Chenery in 2013. “The harder he trained, the better he went. He’d have a five-eighths workout the Tuesday before every race, and if he missed it, things never worked out as well.”

Laurin decided to send Secretariat out for a mile work the Tuesday before the Wood, looking for maintenance rather than speed. Turcotte thought a mile in 1:38 or 1:40 would be just fine. But he didn’t get it.

“Just as I broke, a Calumet horse in front of me threw his rider and started weaving in and out,” said Turcotte. “I grabbed hold of Secretariat because I didn’t want to get too close to him [the loose horse]. That really messed up the work.”

The 1:42 2/5 timing that day might not have pleased the connections, but they had no reason to think it was anything but a fluke caused by the loose horse. Laurin left New York shortly thereafter to attend the funeral of his father-in-law. When Turcotte showed back up at the barn a couple of days before the Wood to put Secretariat through a quick five-furlong move, the barn foreman said he knew nothing of the proposed workout. It never happened. 

Dr. Manny Gilman, the New York Racing Association veterinarian, performed a prerace inspection on Secretariat the morning of the Wood, and discovered an abscess under the horse’s lip. He showed it to Laurin, who had returned for the race, but Laurin didn’t alert either Turcotte or Tweedy to the condition.

Out on the track before the race, Turcotte noticed something amiss.

“He was throwing his head around during the warm-up,” Turcotte said. “I found out later it took nearly 30 minutes to put the bridle on him. In the gate, he took a step forward and the assistant starter pulled back on the bit, and Secretariat broke right through the gate. We turned him around and walked him back in. When the race started, he threw his head, and we sat back [sixth of eight]. I thought I was well-enough placed, but every time I picked his head up he threw it around. He always ran against the bit and I kept trying to get him to take hold of it, but each time he threw his head. I couldn’t figure out what was happening.”

Secretariat never made the run expected of him, struggling home third, four lengths behind stablemate Angle Light.

“I was very puzzled getting off him; very disappointed,” Turcotte noted. “I looked at his mouth to see if there was blood from a cut or a broken tooth, but there was nothing there.”

Tweedy was angry with Laurin for having run Angle Light in the race because the trainer also had an investment (a breeding share) in Secretariat.

“You wouldn’t have wanted to be in the car with us after the Wood,” she said. “I gave him such hell. I felt he hadn’t protected our investment. I have a temper, and I was mad.

“Looking back, I was confused by the race, but I was willing to think of the Wood as an aberration. Though disappointed, I thought it might be good for us. It’s healthy to face some adversity. With a loss under our belt, maybe we could be more realistic. 

“It was years before I knew about the abscess; nobody told me.”

With the Kentucky Derby just two weeks away, what had looked to be an inevitable victory was now shrouded in questions and doubt.