Photo by Aaron S. Terry, Stadium Journey
If you ever attend a sporting event at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, you can walk down the street and find another piece of sports history in town, namely a tribute to one of the greatest racehorses of all time, Secretariat.
To celebrate the birthday of the horse known as Big Red, March 30, 2024 was proclaimed as Secretariat Day, and a plaza honoring the Triple Crown-winning equine was dedicated. The ‘Racing into History’ monument, created by Jocelyn Russell, includes a statue of Secretariat racing at full speed, as well as brick facades on two sides showcasing the horse’s successes. The monument is located at the corner of Railroad Avenue and England Street in downtown Ashland, about 10 miles from Meadow Stable, where Secretariat was born in 1970.
Penny Chenery, Secretariat’s owner and manager of his racing career, operated Meadow Stable at the time, and with the help of her father, Chris, bred the horse through a match between the 1957 Horse of the Year Bold Ruler, and the 1973 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Somethingroyal. Chris Chenery grew up in Ashland, attended Randolph-Macon College, and later founded Meadow Stable. The operation was sold in 1973 after Chris passed away, but visitors are still welcome to tour the historic barns and pastures – the site is now known as Meadow Event Park, and also hosts the annual State Fair of Virginia.
Secretariat won 16 races out of 21 starts in his career, including most famously all three races in the 1973 Triple Crown – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont. Secretariat was the first horse ever to run the Derby in under 2 minutes, a feat that has only been accomplished once since. More impressively, however, his records in all 3 races still stand today, over 50 years later – Secretariat’s largest margin of victory was winning the Belmont by 31 lengths.
Secretariat was retired to stud at the end of his three-year old year, and his name now appears in the pedigrees of many modern champions, and he has also sired many leading broodmares. The great horse passed away in 1989 from laminitis, but thanks to the efforts of his fans, Secretariat’s memory can now live on forever in Ashland.
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