An artifact from horseshoeing history is up for auction.

The starting bid for Secretariat’s aluminum Thoro’Bred horseshoe is at $2,000 as of the afternoon of July 30. The online auction runs on Lelands’ website until Aug. 16.

The shoe is enclosed in lucite and includes a letter of provenance from Neil Bergelt, according to Lelands. Bergelt’s brother originally bought the shoe at auction from Shotheby’s/Amazon on behalf of Penny Chenery, who bred and owned Secretariat.

One of Secretariat’s 1973 Kentucky Derby shoes sold at auction via Lelands for a record $80,736 in 2018. Big Red’s previous horseshoes have sold for about $30,000.

Secretariat burst onto the racing scene in 1972, winning Horse of the Year. Yet, it was as a 3-year-old that Big Red set track records in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes en route to capturing the 1973 Triple Crown — the ninth horse to do so. He earned $1,316,808 in 41 races over 2 years while collecting five Eclipse Awards. Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974.

He sired 653 foals, including 57 stakes winners. He appears in the pedigree of several notable sires, including Storm Cat, A.P. Indy, Gone West, Dehere and Chief’s Crown. Secretariat’s great-great-great grandson is American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Grand Slam of American horse racing after capturing the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic during the 2015 racing season.

Secretariat was euthanized in 1989 at Claiborne Farm after a month-long bout with laminitis. He was 19.

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