Secretariat: Secretariat
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SPECIAL SECRETARIAT: REPORT LIKE NO OTHER HORSE WHY WHY SECRETARIAT STILL MATTERS 32 EQUUS 434 november 2013 SECRETARIAT: LIKE NO OTHER HORSE Combining astonishing talent with good looks and charisma, Secretariat captivated the nation in 1973. Forty years later, his star still shines bright. he other icons of 1973 By Jennifer ---the Partridge Family, Graham Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, eight-track tapes, bell-bottom pants---seem as distant and hoary as 40-cent- a-gallon gas. But Secretariat thunders Ton, timeless, as vibrant and relevant in death as he was in life. Earlier this year, 1,200 people turned out for a party in Virginia celebrating the anniversary of his birth. Millions of admirers have watched grainy YouTube videos of Secretariat’s thrilling stretch runs. He has been immortalized in bronze, books, film, song, even on a postage stamp. A Secretariat bobblehead commands $200 on eBay; a Belmont Stakes ticket, purchased for $2 in 1973, goes for $1,000; a nail from one of his horseshoes fetches more than $6,000. In Paris, Kentucky, red roses still arrive every month for him at WHY JIM MCCUE Claiborne Farm; thousands KIT HOUGHTON/CORBIS SECRETARIAT STILL MATTERS november 2013 EQUUS 434 33 SPECIAL SECRETARIAT: REPORT LIKE NO OTHER HORSE still visit his grave there every year. Forty years after he ran his last race, Secretariat still matters, and it doesn’t take too much effort to figure out why. His Triple Crown records still stand. His feats can be endlessly relived by anyone with an Internet connection through sites that showcase videos of his racing career. And, perhaps most important, Secretariat’s legacy has been managed by a smart, dynamic and telegenic busi- nesswoman, Helen “Penny” Chenery, who understood, as no one else did, what he meant to the public then---and what he still represents today. HANDSOME A NEW GENERATION BOY: Secretariat OF FANS at 6 months Secretariat was born on March already had 30, 1970, at The Meadow in Doswell, the look of a Virginia, about a half-hour from champion. Richmond. The property is now owned by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation and is home to the Virginia State Fair. Christopher Chenery, Penny’s fa- ther, bred Secretariat as well as 1972 Kentucky Derby winner Riva Ridge and many other racing champions. The Chenery family sold The Meadow in 1978, and the house was torn down in the 1980s, but the foaling shed and other barns remain, testaments BOB HART to the beginnings of a mighty cham- pion. (The story is detailed in Secretariat’s Meadow, by Kate Chenery Tweedy and Leeanne Meadows Ladin, published in 2010.) Earlier this year, Penny Chenery and her daughter traveled back to The Meadow for a birthday celebration for Big Red. Also on hand was Ron Turcotte, the jockey who guided Secretariat through his Triple Crown victories and most of his other races. 34 EQUUS 434 november 2013 Among the 1,200 people who turned to Secretariat’s fans. (Chenery is widely out were children whose own parents SECRETARIAT’S known to possess superpowers in her were children in 1973. “It’s been 40 ability to sign books and photographs years, but it might as well have been VITAL for hours.) yesterday,” wrote Holly Prestidge in The It turned out to be a brilliant deci- Richmond Times-Dispatch. Among the STATISTICS sion. Today, Lusky has seen the original fans were a family of six who’d made bobblehead sell for $800. And a Beanie a seven-hour drive so their 12-year- Baby issued in 2007, likewise, swiftly old daughter could meet Chenery, the Height: 16.2 hands sold out and remains a collector’s item. woman behind the horse. Weight: 1,200 Pounds Meadow Stable, Now 91 and living in a retirement Owner: BURNISHING Penny Tweedy (Chenery) home in Colorado, Chenery has become Trainer: Lucien Laurin THE RECORD almost as famous as her beloved horse. Jockey: Ron Turcotte A Kentucky native, Lusky was 12 She admits that, while much of his Groom: Eddie Sweat when Secretariat was racing and vivid- popularity was organic, part of it was Exercise riders: Jim Gaffney ly remembers watching the Belmont on the fruit of her labor. and Charlie Davis a television at a RadioShack at a mall. “We’ve worked hard to keep him Lifetime race record (1972-1973): Later, after Secretariat retired, he went in the public eye, because he fulfills a 21-16-3-1; $1,316,808 to Claiborne Farm to see him. need,” Chenery says. “All those horse- Progeny: 653, including “I was a gawker, like everyone else,” crazy teenaged girls…. We could not 57 stakes winners he says. “I’d brought my camera, and have kept his memory alive if there was Recent popular descendants: the groom brought him out. He was big, not a need for him,” she says. A.P. Indy, Gone West, Storm Cat, Elusive he was burly, and his head was down. I To help meet that need, a decade Quality, Smarty Jones wasn’t sensing the greatness. But then after Secretariat’s death, Chenery I took out my camera to take a picture, partnered with Leonard Lusky, a Source: Secretariat.com and he perked up, got that faraway look, publisher in Kentucky, to produce and posed, and I said, ‘Now I get it.’ a website dedicated to the horse. “He was a ham,” Lusky laughs. “Almost every famous horse now has What started as a part-time venture an Internet presence,” Lusky says. But to help fund the life-size bronze statue Secretariat, true to form, was a stand- of the horse at the Kentucky Horse Park out from the beginning. in Lexington turned into a “dream job” One of the first products that for Lusky as Secretariat’s Lusky produced was a bobblehead in reach has continued Secretariat’s image. Lusky laughs to expand and the when remembering Chenery’s re- sponse when he first proposed it in 2001: “She gave me that look, and Secretariat said, ‘Don’t you think that might and his groom be a little undignified Eddie Sweat for Secretariat?’” But he convinced her that he could produce “the Rolls Royce of bobbleheads” that fans would love, in a design she approved, and that the effort would be in keeping with Chenery’s cama- raderie with and accessibility BETTMAN/CORBIS november 2013 EQUUS 434 35 SPECIAL SECRETARIAT: REPORT LIKE NO OTHER HORSE website grew. For a while, Chenery an- • March 30, 1970: foaled then-record $6.08 million. swered questions from fans on the site, at The Meadow, Doswell, Virginia Sports Illustrated noted but that task soon became overwhelm- • July 4, 1972: In his first that “he was syndicated ing, so new questions are no longer race, Secretariat had a poor for something like $345 an taken. An archive of previous questions start and rough trip, but he ounce,” much higher than the and answers is available, however. rallied to finish the five-and-a- price of gold, which was $86 It was Lusky who, in 2012, argued half furlong race in fourth an ounce. Penny Chenery kept on behalf of Secretariat before the place, at Aqueduct Race Course four of the $190,000 shares, Maryland Racing Commission and had in New York. while 28 others went to buyers his Preakness time adjusted. Lusky’s KENTUCKY DERBY • July 15, 1972: from all over the world. The 1973 presentation lasted more than three Secretariat earns his first win, syndication contract stipulated and a half hours, but it took commission taking a six-furlong maiden race that the colt would retire from BETTMAN/CORBIS members just five minutes to decide that a timer had malfunctioned at the start of the race, and Secretariat’s time had, in fact, broken the record. Not that the big horse’s reputation needed fur- ther burnishing, but, as Lusky puts it, “It was fantastic, after 40 years, having those asterisks taken away.” MILESTONES Now, it’s official: In winning the 1973 Triple Crown, Secretariat broke records in all three races, finishing the Derby in 1:59 2/5, the Preakness in 1:53, and the Belmont in 2:24. The footage of the Belmont win is one of the most inspirational video clips on YouTube, with Secretariat blow- ing past Sham in front of a billowing American flag as renowned broadcaster Chic Anderson breathlessly calls the race, describing Secretariat as “a tre- mendous machine.” at Aqueduct Race Course in New racing after the end of the “Secretariat,” Lusky says, “was this BEST IS YET TO York by four lengths. 1973 season. rare confluence of time and accomplish- COME: Secretariat’s • December 1972: After • May 5, 1973: ment. It was the perfect storm of what trainer Lucien finishing the season with six Secretariat wins The Kentucky he did, the way he did it, how he looked Laurin presents additional wins, including five Derby in a record-breaking and his team. I’m not sure that will ever the colt with a stakes races, Secretariat was 1:59 2/5 minutes, gaining happen again.” birthday cake in named the champion 2-year- speed with each successive March 1973. old colt of 1972 and voted as quarter mile. The crowd of “WHAT A MIRACLE” Horse of the Year, topping his 134,476 was the largest to An orthopedic surgeon in Austin, stablemate 1972 Kentucky ever gather for a horse race Texas, Barbara Bergin, MD, didn’t even Derby winner Riva Ridge and the by that date. get interested in horses until she was in unbeaten filly La Prevoyante.