Tag: Riva Ridge
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Secretariat Birthday Celebration at The Meadow
SECRETARIAT BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT THE MEADOW MARCH 29-30 KICKS OFF 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF SECRETARIAT’S 1973 TRIPLE CROWN Come Join Us Where the Legend Began! Forty years ago in 1973, the big red horse pounded the turf in the Belmont Stakes like a “tremendous machine” and clinched the first Triple Crown in a quarter-century. Forty years…
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Happy Birthday, Penny Chenery
We want to be the first to send the “First Lady of Racing,” Penny Chenery, our warmest wishes for a Happy Birthday on January 27! Last year was a milestone birthday at age 90, but this year will also be very special for Penny. It marks the 40th anniversary of Secretariat’s historic Triple Crown of 1973. His…
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REMEMBERING CHRISTOPHER T. CHENERY, FOUNDER OF MEADOW STABLE
We’re interrupting our “Ancestors of Secretariat” series to take a moment to remember the visionary founder of Meadow Stable, Christopher T. Chenery. He died 40 years ago on January 3, 1973 at the age of 86. The man who created “an empire built on broodmares” in Caroline County, Virginia, never lived to see his greatest…
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Ancestors of Secretariat…New Series
ANCESTORS OF SECRETARIAT: NEARCO, the ITALIAN STALLION While we have featured many of Secretariat’s descendants on our website and Secretariat’s Meadow Facebook page, we were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to our recent Facebook posts about Secretariat’s ancestors. Therefore, we’re going to devote our blog to this topic for awhile. We’ll start with Nearco, Secretariat’s paternal great grandsire,…
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Riva Ridge in Spotlight at Secretariat Festival
For once, Riva Ridge shared the spotlight with his stablemate, Big Red, and in Paris, of all places. Paris, Kentucky, that is, where the annual Secretariat Festival took place and where our new book “Riva Ridge – Penny’s First Champion” made its “world debut” on September 29. What better kick-off than to have Penny Chenery, the…
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Before there was Big Red…there was “the Great Red Fox”
A century before Meadow Stable, home of Hall of Famers Secretariat, Riva Ridge, Hill Prince and Cicada, put Doswell, Virginia on the racing map, Bullfield Stable in nearby Hanover County dominated the American racing scene. Its most famous son was a long-striding chestnut stallion named Planet, also called “the great red fox.” He was…
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Secretariat Descendants Dominating the 2012 Derby!
Secretariat is running in the Derby this Saturday! Of the 20 contenders in the field, 16 of them can boast Big Red in their bloodlines. (verified through www.pedigreequery.com) The daughters of America’s Super Horse whose sons (Secretariat’s grandsons) established these dominant bloodlines are: Weekend Surprise – A.P. Indy; Terlingua – Storm Cat; and Secrettame – Gone West Of course…
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Viva Riva! Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Riva Ridge’s Derby Victory
In 1969, a muddy-bay colt with floppy ears would be saved from the floodwaters of Hurricane Camille at his Virginia farm. Later, he would rescue the same farm as it was sinking into debt and preserve it as the launching pad of its greatest champion. Though he would be swept aside in the…
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The Secretariat Birthday Party Goes On!
Some of you may have heard the sad news that The Meadow, which was owned by the State Fair of Virginia, has been closed to the public. The Fair (a private, not for profit organization) was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy on March 8 when the bank did not accept its plan to reorganize. This was heart-breaking…
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Next Stop on the “Secretariat’s Meadow Tour”…the Yearling Barn
On our virtual tram tour of The Meadow, you’ve seen The Cove where the broodmares and foals grazed, and the Stallion Barns. Now we’ll take a look at the Yearling Barn, where both Secretariat and Riva Ridge stayed as colts. The Yearling Barn originally built by Chris Chenery still stands, and like the Stallion Barns,…