First horse to finish the derby under northern dancers 2:00 mark?

Question

First horse to finish the derby under northern dancers 2:00 mark?

Answer 1

Your question has already been answered but to add - the only other horse to run a sub 2 minute Derby since Secretariat and Sham was Monarchos in 1:59:4 (1:59.97) in 2001.  He never won another race after that.

Answer 2

I had a feeling it was Secretariat, but I didn't want to cheat and look it up if I didn't know for sure.  : )

What a fantastic horse and athlete he was.  I just wish I had been a little older to really appreciate it when he was racing.

Answer 3

Secretariat not only holds the Derby record, but if I am correct, Secretariat also holds the track record at  Churchill Downs for that distance.

Answer 4

Secretariat and Sham did it in 1973 - Poor Sham, would of been a famous horse except that he raced vs. Secretariat.

Answer 5

The great Secretariat of course!  He still holds the stakes record for the Kentucky Derby.  1:59 and 2/5!

Incidentally, the 2nd fastest Kentucky Derby ever was run by Sham who came in second to Secretariat that day.

Answer 6

Secretariat!  In 1973.

People pay a lot of attention to Northern Dancer and Secretariat's records, but by far, the greatest leap up in time in derby history was when Twenty Grand set the new record in 1931 by knocking the time down to 2:01:80.  Until then, the record was 2:03:20.  Twenty Grand knocked 1 and 2/5 seconds off of that record... he would have beat every horse who ran before him by at least 7 lengths.  That's huge!