I decided to do a picture of someone inspiring again but this time I did it with a twist. I went with an inspirational figure that just so happens to be an animal.



























Secretariat's story is one of the most inspirational tales that I have ever come across. In my eyes he towers above Seabuscuit, Phar Lap, and Man-O-War (all extremely inspiring stories). I find that I identify with Secretariat, another little horse (who was by no means little at all) named Barbaro, and (much more recently...though Barbaro is pretty recent) Big Brown, more than most of the others.With Barbaro it was about his struggle to live after a sever injury and his uncanny similarities with Secretariat. If anyone was going to be the next triple crown winner, it was Barbaro. Unfortunately he didn't get the chance.
I still remember how emotional I was when I found out they had finally decided to put him down (after months of struggling, gaining a footing over his injury, then getting worse again and again). After Barbaro, we had another shot in Big Brown. He won the first two races and had a great chance of winning the third and becoming the first triple crown winner since Secretariat, but it just wasn't his day. The poor guy didn't feel well and dropped behind the rest of the horses where he stayed. Like Secretariat, he was a closer (stay at the back of the pack and charge to the lead in the last stretch) and if it weren't for some decisions made on the part of his owners, he may have been on his A-game for the last race as well.

But as close as these two horses got to him, Secretariat remains the king of racing. His amazing time and length of victory in the Belmont Stakes has never even been approached. He is the raining triple crown winner and something tells me it may remain so for years to come. When there is an athlete that stands out above the rest in his sport, he is well remembered. I don't think Secretariat will ever fall into the background in the racing world, he was and is just too big to be lost in the shadows of the track. He was a giant.