Marianna Haun

A member of the National Turf Writers Association, Marianna Haun has covered the racing industry since 1992,  first as a staff writer for the Thoroughbred Times for two years, and now as a free-lance writer for the Associated Press for the past two years, while working on The X- Factor project and book.

Haun has a long association with Secretariat. Like many people, she cried as she watched him win the Belmont on television in 1973. She later photographed him in 1987 and was on the farm the day he died in 1989. Her first story, "Great Heart," which appeared in the Thoroughbred Times in April, 1993, led to the quest to understand the meaning of Secretariat's enormous heat. Nearly a year later, after months of intense pedigree research, she discovered a genetic link from Secretariat's mighty heart to Eclipse's great heart through the mare Pocahontas on the X chromosome trail. This link was called the X Factor.

This was the discovery that led to the ongoing research to prove the sex-linkage of the characteristic and to find the genetic marker.

Marianna Haun's Web site with photos and progress notes on "Mighty Mouse,"  the tiny,  large hearted twin filly mentioned in her book,  "The X-Factor.   This is a wonderful photo tale of "the Little Mare that Could" and her part in proving the X-Factor "theory."  (The Last Red,  carrying a heart larger than some Running Champions, is pictured above with Marianna.)

Related Reading:

Click HERE to read "Heart of the Matter" Part 1
reprinted with permission from the Quarter Racing Journal.

Click HERE to read "Heart of the Matter" Part 2
reprinted with permission from the Quarter Racing Journal.

For more information on the BOOK, "The X Factor" ... click here.

Marianna Haun's Web site