Was Barbaro related to Secretariat

Answer 1

I believe Ruffian was better than Secretariat... because she WAS a filly, and she never got the chance to really show the world what she could do... i think if Secretariat and Ruffian had ever went head to head, Ruffian might have had a VERY good chance at beating him... she IS queen of the fillys you know. and Maybe she could have been queen of them all if she had the chance. I guess we will never know the TRUE answer to that question... *sigh* :(

They were actually distantly related. But.. Although Ruffian may have been the greatest race filly ever, it is doubtful she could have beaten the mighty Secretariat at his best. Many believe she could not have even beaten Foolish Pleasure if she had not broken down.

Most breeders agree that Scretariat was the greatest racehorse ever!!!!!

Normally, it takes an exceptional filly to beat a colt over distances of 1/4 mile or more. Secretariat was faster than Ruffian, look at their times over the same distances, and it's not even close. EXAMPLE:Secretariat's Belmont Stakes time was 2:24 flat for the mile and 1/2. The best Ruffian ever ran at that distance was 2:27.5.

On the other hand, Secretariat's own trainer once said of Ruffian, "As God as my witness, she may even be better than Secretariat." That's straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

4/29/2015 - Derrol, you are clearly showing bias against female runners. First off, Foolish Pleasure was not in her class. His main claim to fame was being a Derby winner. She was undefeated in 10 starts. When the breakdown occurred, Ruffian was leaving FP. She was opening up daylight on him. If she hadn't slammed her shoulder into the starting gate at the beginning of the race, she would have left him in her dust. When she broke down she was pulling away, which makes her loss all the more tragic. Foolish Pleasure's only advantage was he had better racing luck that day. The only way he could have won is if she'd broken down, which is exactly what happened. Watch the match race on You Tube if you don't believe me. He didn't look her in the eye. He didn't run her into the ground, and she certainly didn't break down because he was a male. To his credit, Foolish was able to stay with her longer than all the other fillies did, but he was lucky that day, she wasn't. The only horse who ever made Ruffian work was a little filly named Hot N Nasty. Ruffian met her in the Sorority Stakes when they were both two year olds. Ruffian was suffering from a split that day and Hot N Nasty was a very tough competitor. At one point in the race she even managed to head Ruffian, she looked her in the eye, but Ruffian refused to be beaten.

4/29/2015-- This is Derrol. Just for the record, the format seems to be totally messed up on this. I am not biased against female racehorses. Most of the comments in this body of text were posted by several different people so I'm not sure which comment you attributed to me which gave you the idea I was biased against female racehorses. I just posted the original question, and I was aware of the comment Secretariat's trainer made, which is what got me interested in the subject to begin with. As for there being a bias against female horses I'll say this. It seems pretty well documented that male racehorses in general tend to have physiological advantages over female horses. But there are always exceptions to the rule. And by all accounts Ruffian was an exceptional filly. Was she exceptional enough to have been able to beat Secretariat if they were to race each other in their prime? That's what I was curious about and was hoping to get feedback about from people who probably know more about horse racing than me. Thanks for your feedback, it's duly noted and much appreciated.

Her times weren't as fast as Secretariat's? I didn't agree with that. Are you aware that her trainer, Frank Whiteley, told her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, to hold her back during her races? Vasquez usually let her run at the top of the stretch. Sometimes that didn't work and Ruffian would ignore him and still pull away from the field. The idea was to teach her to conserve her speed, so that she could relax during the early going, which would be useful. We never saw that filly's bottom. We'll never know how far and how fast she really could run. After watching Ruffian's victory in the Spinaway Lucien Lauren did tell the press "As God as my witness, she may even be better than Secretariat." I'd trust his judgement, as opposed to someone posting online who obviously does not know what they're talking about. Everything I've said can be easily confirmed just by doing a little research on the internet.

Answer 2

We will never know for sure, but it is doubtful. Secretariat was the greatest ever.

Answer 3

Yes, distantly, through his great, great, great grandsire, Princequillo.