Horse Racing

Museum-displayed ‘race-worn’ hair from three-year-old Secretariat, removed from his mane after the final race of his magical 1973 Triple Crown season

9192. Secretariat Racing Hair from the 1973 Triple Crown Season. Large example of ‘race-worn’ chestnut hair

removed from the mane of legendary Thoroughbred racehorse Secretariat on October 29, 1973, one day after the three-yearold stallion capped off his career with a first-place finish at the Canadian International Stakes at the Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. The circle of hair, which roughly measures 3½˝ in diameter, was hand removed by Ray DeStefano of Murty Brothers Horse Transportation, when he was loading the horse onto a van bound for Belmont Park, Secretariat’s brief residency before retiring to Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. The hard plastic case the hair is presented in is original to its three-yearlong exhibition at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (NMRHOF), where it was displayed as part of the Ride On! exhibit from May 2006 until December 2009. Most other examples of Secretariat hair were obtained when he was much older and in retirement at Claiborne Farm.

Accompanied by sundry paperwork related to DeStefano’s loaning of the hair to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, as well as by a signed letter of provenance from DeStefano, who affirms that he personally removed the horse’s hair at JFK airport in the summer of 1973, while working for Murty Brothers Horse Transportation, the company contracted to transfer Secretariat. A remarkably dense ring of Secretariat ‘racing hair’ deriving from the very end of his history-making three-year-old Triple Crown careerStarting Bid $1000