I'm sorry but I have to disagree no horse could of stayed with Secretariat at that pace and that distance for that long! He was in a race by himself, and any other horse would of faded badly to such a regal horse. Man O War would of been the only horse to stay with him that long, even the best distance horses back then would not been able to Affirmed was spent racing with Alydar going 2:26 so there is no way in heck he could of stayed with Secretariat going 2:24 he would of faded easily 10 lengths behind Big Red because he couldn't keep his speed up to that level.
Risen Star his son and Easy Goer have had the closest two times to Big Red and neither could of run 2:24. that's what makes it great, it doesn't matter that Sham couldn't stay with him and I guarentee you he wouldn't have even if he would of broken down the early going was just to fast for him and that's obvious, if the early quarters weren't enough to do him in the final half mile of the race just kept getting faster, sure some horses like Afleet Alex ran the fastest last quarter of the Belmont up to date but I'd like to see another horse keep up that pace that long and then we will talk about breaking records.
You are right in America there are hardly any mile and a half races but a race like that in terms of speed and visual conformation is one that should never be topped in another Belmont.
Intresting fact is that Secretariat sired Kingston Rule the 1990 Melbourne Cup Winner who still holds the Melbourne Cup Record of 3:16:3
