I know, it isn't baseball. But the video(s) is amazing, and the debate in the discussion section below it reflects many of the same themes and discussions (like why no more .400 hitters), the role of technology, etc.  that we have in our forum here.

Enjoy:

http://deadspin.com/this-is-what-it-would-look-like-if-american-pharoah-rac-1709988755

Thank you for posting this link.  

Thanks for finding and post, very cool. I recall watching that race in '73 as a young man. Hadn't seen it in full since.

Secretariat still holds all three Triple Crown track records.  The tragedy in the Secretariat story is Sham, poor horse.  Finished 2nd in the first two legs and ran with Secretariat until the mile marker at the Belmont.

Yeah this is why I posted it, other than that the split-screen video is fun. 

My guess is that Secretariat really was slightly better, though I think the article's author makes too much out of the 2-second difference in straight times - a significant win were it to happen in real life, but it put Pharoah in the same league with Secretariat, though not quite as good. 

But yes, there are other jockeys whose horses had beaten Secretariat in other races on harder tracks for example. So we can't take this two second difference at face value any more than we can take home run numbers from different eras or ball parks.

Also, the fact that over time, the rest of the field got closer to the Triple Crown winner's level en masse (as Stephen Jay Gould's great piece on why there are no .400 hitters suggests it should) compared with the huge advantage of Secretariat over the rest of his field is again similar to many baseball debates.

Sham may have been a champion in any other year, who knows?