In 1989 Secretariat contracted laminitis, a painful degenerative disease involving an animal’s hooves. After treatments failed, the 19-year-old stallion was given a lethal injection of a concentrated barbiturate on October 4, 1989. Secretariat’s death made national headlines. A necropsy revealed that his heart was twice the size of a typical horse. Some speculated this allowed for his incredible speed. Unlike most horses—which are buried with only their head, hooves, and heart—Secretariat was interred whole.