As Penny Chenery and Ron Turcotte spoke of Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon, these fingers found the YouTube clip of the 1973 Belmont Stakes. Big Red didn't drive for the finish line that Saturday, Turcotte corrected a caller, he cruised to his legendary 31-length triumph.
As savage, as inexorable, as poetic as it appeared, Turcotte insisted Secretariat could have taken a few clicks off the record time of 2:24 for the mile and a half, too, if he had been pushed in any way.
"I was just watching in awe," Secretariat's owner Chenery, 93, said.
"I guess I was the coolest of all," Turcotte said.