Secretariat Kentucky Derby shoe sells for $80,736

A shoe worn by Secretariat in his 1973 Kentucky Derby victory that began his record-setting Triple Crown sweep has sold for a record $80,736 in an online auction.

The auction, conducted by the sports memorabilia auction website Lelands.com, began July 15 and ended late Friday night. The 18 separate bids pushed the artifact past the previous record for a horseshoe, which also was established by Lelands.

“We anticipated a high level of interest in Secretariat’s Derby shoe,” Mike Heffner, president of Lelands.com, said in a press release. “The previous world record of nearly $37,000 was set in an auction we conducted a few years ago. Given the provenance of this particular shoe and historical significance of the 1973 Kentucky Derby, we expected it to do well. However, watching it more than double the previous record was a wonderful surprise.”

In a press release, the auction site said it was working with the family of Secretariat’s late owner Penny Chenery to offer additional items from her personal collection and the Meadow Stable archives in the future.

In the meantime, an auction on Secretariat.com that will run through Sept. 26 features other significant items, including the Chenery-Tweedy family’s track-used 1973 Kentucky Derby clubhouse box ticket stub, program, and admission bracelet; a photograph with the signatures of Secretariat's groom Eddie Sweat and exercise rider Jimmy Gaffney; and Chenery’s original and official Jockey Club membership pin from when she became one of the first women elected to the organization. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Secretariat Foundation, a non-profit created by Chenery to assist the Thoroughbred industry in the areas of research, rehabilitation, retirement, and recognition.