Another in Patricia McQueen’s series on Secretariat’s offspring:
Children of Secretariat: how a mare left to starve became the Queen of AlabamaThe story of a 29-year-old mare named Albany’s Secret weaves together a most unlikely cast of characters. It embodies what is best in the world of horse racing, with a little of the worst thrown in along the way. In the end, her story became a happy one, but for a while it was clearly a hard road.
That road began with some of racing’s elite and breeding at the highest levels. Amerigo Lady was a major stakes winner in the late 1960s for breeder Nelson Bunker Hunt and owner Paul Mellon. For Mellon, she produced the multiple stakes winner Pass The Glass. In 1976, Amerigo Lady was sent to Secretariat – Mellon was one of the original syndicate members – and produced the winning filly Miss Tross.
Mellon sold Amerigo Lady, in foal to Alydar, at the 1980 Keeneland November breeding stock sale; the buyer at $600,000 was Tom Gentry. The resulting foal, Albany Girl, was sold as a yearling in 1982 for $325,000. The buyer? Australian corporate raider Robert Holmes à Court, who was that country’s first billionaire.
He loved his horses – he had several farms and bred 1984 Melbourne Cup winner Black Knight. He began dabbling in the American bloodstock market in the 1980s, but apparently without much success.
Albany Girl was unraced, and à Court bred her first four foals in Pennsylvania; the mare was then sent to the Southern Hemisphere. The first three were by Diamond Shoal; the fourth and last American-bred was Albany’s Secret, by Secretariat. The chestnut filly with a small star was born April 28, 1988.
Robert Holmes à Court died suddenly in September 1990 at the age of 53 but was still listed as the owner of record when Albany’s Secret made her one and only start at Oaklawn Park on January 27, 1991. Trained by D. Wayne Lukas and ridden by Aaron Gryder, the filly finished last of 12 in a six-furlong $30,000 maiden claiming race; she was third choice in the betting at 7-1 but trailed throughout.
More:
https://www.thoroughbredracing.com/articles/children-secretariat-how-mare-left-starve-became-queen-alabama/
Flourishing: the 29-year-old Albany’s Secret at Victory Alliance Ranch in Alabama. Photo: Patricia McQueen
Albany’s Secret at Victory Alliance: “She looks like her classy old self again,” says Karen Chillcott. Photo: Patricia McQueen
Karen Chillcott with Albany’s Secret and the peppermints she can’t get enough of. Photo: Patricia McQueen
Inseparable: Albany’s Secret with the horse who has become her shadow, constant companion Major Influence. Photo: Patricia McQueen