Before 134,476 fans, the largest crowd to see a horse race in the United States to that date, Sham ripped two teeth out on the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby. Although bleeding from the start, Sham finished second behind Secretariat, who came away with a 2 length victory running 1:59 for the 1 miles, the first horse to break two minutes in the Kentucky Derby. (The previous record was 2:00, set by Northern Dancer in 1964.) When asked about the effect of Sham's start, Laffit Pincay said, "It's difficult to see how he could have run much better than almost 1:59, and yet, logically, hitting his head on the gate and losing the teeth couldn't have helped him." By running 2 lengths behind Secretariat, Sham ran the distance in either 1:59 to 2:00. As races were not timed to 1/100th of a second at the time, and non-winning times were not taken, no exact time is available.