Jason Kelce Had a Fired-Up Rant About Secretariat Being 'Juiced to the Gills'

Patrick Andres | May 9, 2024

Mar 30, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Former Philadelphia Eagle Jason Kelce reacts. / Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

A half-century after his storied career, racehorse Secretariat continues to beguile.

The late Hall of Famer currently holds the record for the fastest time in the history of all three Triple Crown races. He won 16 times from 21 starts in his career, including an iconic 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.

On Wednesday's edition of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce offered a comical theory as to how Secretariat so thoroughly dismantled his competition: before it came into vogue, he was doing performance-enhancing drugs.

"Secretariat was juiced to the gills," Jason asserted to his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. "Secretariat just so happens to be right in the heart of the steroid era."

Jason is very passionate about his take that Secretariat is a juicer 😂 https://t.co/7kSMXbkuqi pic.twitter.com/SL7ufjgATj

— New Heights (@newheightshow) May 9, 2024

"The '70s?" a slightly incredulous Travis asked.

"In 1973 every NFL player, every baseball player, they were juicing them to the gills. You don't think Secretariat was f---ing juiced to the rafters?" Jason asked. "They didn't drug test Secretariat they way they drug-tested (2024 Kentucky Derby champion) Mystik Dan. Nobody talks about it. Secretariat was doping."

"That's f---ed up, man," Travis chuckled.

Jason Kelce later added more to his argument with this very long tweet:

Just going to put this out there, you know who else has enlarged hearts. People who take copious amounts of steroids. I’ll admit I don’t know whether Secretariat was on steroids or not, it’s impossible to know, because in 1973 when Secretariat won the triple crown there was not… https://t.co/QClbJKSkzD

— Jason Kelce (@JasonKelce) May 9, 2024

For the record, despite Jason's proclamations, no evidence has ever been found linking Secretariat to steroid use.

"I know there was talk later on that Secretariat was on steroids, but (trainer) Lucien (Laurin) never messed with that stuff," veteran trainer and photographer Raymond Woolfe said in The Horse That God Built, a 2006 biography by Lawrence Scanlan.