Secretariat's heart size....

[Joanne]

The triple crown races Secretariat was in have been popping up on my youtube suggestions, among other videos of him. I wish I could have seen him when he was retired.

I’ve know he had a huge heart estimated at 22 pounds at autopsy. Was there a reason why his heart wasn’t weighed? Did they not have access to a scale?

"We were all shocked,” Swerczek said. “I’ve seen and done thousands of autopsies on horses, and nothing I’d ever seen compared to it. The heart of the average horse weighs about nine pounds. This was almost twice the average size, and a third larger than any equine heart I’d ever seen. And it wasn’t pathologically enlarged. All the chambers and the valves were normal. It was just larger. I think it told us why he was able to do what he did.”

[SuzieQNutter]

I can tell you that Google said Pharlap’s heart is twice as big as other horses and weighed 14 pounds.

It is in the National Museum in Canberra and I saw it in a school excursion decades ago.

[CCook]

Your post made me curious too, so I googled and found this site, if it helps at all. Dr. Swerczek is quoted as saying his time with the body was limited and he was not allowed to retain any organs for further study, so he was unable to weigh the heart. I didn’t look into any of the sources for this webpage so no idea how accurate it all is, but some of it is interesting.

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org…iat#Heart_size

[summerhorse]

I always wondered at that, it would have taken like 3 minutes to weigh it IF that much. I read somewhere that he said it didn’t seem right to weigh it because he was so great (but a necropsy was??) Stupid really. If this was a field autopsy it might be different but I am pretty sure this was done at the clinic.

[MorganSercu]

Sham’s heart was 18#. Any other year and he would have been the race fans darling.

[SuzieQNutter]

@MorganSercu

Sham’s heart was 18#. Any other year and he would have been the race fans darling.

Yes you had to feel sorry for him that the only years he raced he was against one horse he could not beat and the dumbest in the world.

It reminds me of a guy who did not realise he was so good at maths, because there was a guy in his class who was better, but when he got out in the World they were number 1 and 2.

[LaurieB]

@SuzieQNutter

It reminds me of a guy who did not realise he was so good at maths, because there was a guy in his class who was better, but when he got out in the World they were number 1 and 2.

I knew a guy who gave up playing competitive chess when he was 18 because he could never be the best. He was #2 junior player in the U.S., #2 in his state, #2 in his county. He was also #2 on his street. He grew up on the same block as Bobby Fischer.

[Joanne]

It just seemed very odd to me that it wasn’t weighed since it was so uniquely large. Plus Dr. Swerczek did dissect the heart: “All the chambers and the valves were normal.”

[MorganSercu]

If you’re interested, I found this article. Apparently, there was no scale available to weigh his heart where the necropsy was performed AND his son was in a terrible car wreck that same day, was in critical condition and his prognosis was grave. But he rushed over to do it anyway. So maybe it is best to cut him a little slack now that we know more of the circumstances.

His son stayed in a coma and was cared for by his parents, at home until his death, for 22 years.

“I did not have my photography equipment or scales with me, it all happened so fast, within an hour of the call he was brought to the facility.”

https://webcache.googleusercontent.c…&ct=clnk&gl=us