And They Used To Call Him Sexy

Secretariat's problem is with his sperm. He has been tested six times and these tests, according to the Claiborne vets, showed similar results—immature sperm in differing amounts. This being the case, the vets have no alternative but to declare the horse not fertile, at least in the stringent terms of the syndicate contract. The experts would like to hedge their findings, since Secretariat has been bred to four non-thoroughbred mares and two of three of these have been tested in foal. The outcome of the fourth breeding is still pending. But Lloyds does not want a qualified answer. It is demanding a yes or a no. The vets cannot stretch the truth enough to declare that Secretariat has perfectly normal sperm.

At the first hint of trouble with the Tweedy stallions, discussions began concerning the possible cause of the problem. Since both horses came from the same barn, Trainer Lucien Laurin was queried about medication used while at the track. He assured everyone that the champions had not received unusual or dangerous treatment.

This could be quite true, but questions are now being raised throughout racing about what is referred to as usual treatment. Increasingly, racehorses are receiving heavy doses of drugs, vitamins and steroids. In the old days there was less racing, and horses could rest from October until March. Now with classic colts competing year-round, track veterinarians are pressed by trainers to keep their runners constantly in top shape. Not nearly enough study has been devoted to the effects of booster medication. Many trainers have no idea what a vet is using on their animals and could not care less as long as the treatment is legal. The vet, in turn, has little concern over the effects on the horse after his racing years are over. He figures there will be other vets to treat the horse at the breeding farm. Modern steroids do help thoroughbreds remain at their physical peaks, but few people know what effect this medication may have on the genitalia. Similarly, the repeated use of hormones may diminish a horse's breeding capacity.

But is Secretariat really less than he might be? Claiborne has had trouble with stallions before. A few years ago while testing Reviewer and Big Joker (both, incidentally, sons of Bold Ruler, as is Secretariat), resident veterinarian Dr. Floyd Sager reported the presence of spermatogonia—immature sperm cells—in their semen.

In Reviewer's case, Dr. John MacLeod, now professor emeritus of anatomy at Cornell University Medical College of New York Hospital and by everyone's standards the world's foremost authority on male reproduction, was called in by one of the Claiborne vets, Dr. Walter Kaufman. MacLeod found no evidence of spermatogonia or any immature sperm cells in the slides or in the semen of Reviewer. There is now doubt in some minds—and there definitely is in the mind of Dr. MacLeod, though he has not been asked to look at the Secretariat and Riva Ridge slides—that what the Kentucky vets are identifying as spermatogonia in the two horses is not that at all.

"Semen," Dr. MacLeod explains, "is not always a criterion of a horse's fertility." Some colts, like Derby winner Tomy Lee, test well but then produce only nine foals in six years. The real test is whether or not a stallion can get his mares in foal.

"There is a mystery in the Claiborne findings," MacLeod goes on. "I think they are imagining things and seem to be talking without facts. I do not think they are seeing spermatogonia at all, and the reason I don't think so is that these are the primordial—or granddaddy—of all cells in the testes. They lie deep down where they give rise to all the other germinal cells in the testes. Now if Claiborne vets saw spermatogonia in the ejaculate of these horses, it would mean to me that the testes of Secretariat and Riva Ridge had been subjected to such brutal insult that it would have rendered them totally sterile. If the claim is made that spermatogonia are present in the ejaculate, it is not likely that they are fertile animals."

Lloyds does not take defeat kindly, and if the syndicates try to collect on fertility insurance, the company is not going to pay up without a fight. For starters, it might call in Dr. MacLeod, who has been consulted on troublesome stallions—Twenty Grand, Alibhai and Capot, to name a few—for decades. And Lloyds will conduct its own investigation. If a man runs his yacht onto the rocks, the firm does not pay off without finding out, for example, if he was clutching a shaker of martinis in the wheelhouse. The worst that could happen would be for Lloyds to sue the Tweedy stable for mismanagement of the horses so as to render them incapable—or partially incapable—of breeding.

Not quite as bad a situation would be for Lloyds to pay off: the firm then would own the horses. It could sell them back to Penny Tweedy for further racing, sell them to anyone else who was interested or race them under the company colors, possibly in Europe.

The best that can happen is that both animals will be given more time to prove their fertility and that the contracts will be renegotiated. "It's tricky, but I'm not nervous," says Trainer John Nerud, whose Tartan Farms is a member of the Secretariat syndicate. "I'm sure he'll handle his mares and fill his book. I'll take my chances."