Comparing times from different eras is always faulty at best. What race in Mow`s career shall we use? Lets take his best speed adjusted figure since you have asked about Sec`s best time. MOW`s best race as adjusted speed figures is the Withers Stks May 29, 1920.
That was MOW`s 12 lifetime start. Most horses run their best lifetime adjusted figures within their first 15 starts. Sec`s best speed was the Belmont Stks and that was his 15th start. The tracks in MOW day were about 1/5 of a second slower per furlong at a route distance of a mile or more. I have that time differential well documented from many newspaper charts of that era. When MOW`s Withers` time is adjusted by a daily variant too and projected from 1 mile to 1 mile and a half MOW could have run 1 ½ miles in 2:23.70 on the fast spiked track Secretariat ran on. I am not putting down the wonderful performance of SEC` Belmont for that is perhaps the single greatest performance ever runs by a thoroughbred but I am merely adjusting times as best it can be done.
