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 considered, after Lexington, the greatest racehorse up to the time of the Civil War.

On August 10, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga will induct Planet into the Hall of Fame in the historical category.  Not only did this great champion and Bullfield Stable symbolize an era known as “the golden age of Virginia horse racing,” but they were an early influence on a horse-crazy boy named Christopher T. Chenery and the future Meadow Stable.

 Founded in 1824, Bullfield became known as “the Red Stable” because so many of its winners were sorrels and its jockeys wore flashy orange silks.  Operated by Major Thomas  Walker Doswell and his father, Bullfield gained renown as one of the most successful Thoroughbred farms of the East Coast.  In fact, the locality of Doswell was named in their honor.

 Planet was born in 1855, sired by Revenue, the leading sire in 1850. His dam was the great racer and broodmare Nina, said to be the best racing daughter of the top sire Boston. A prolific broodmare, she gave Bullfield Stable 15 outstanding foals, including Exchequer and Ecliptic, a son of the great Eclipse. Planet was said to be Nina’s best. She was one of the reasons that writers of the period referred to Bullfield as “a nursery of Virginia racehorses.”

 Planet was a handsome horse, described by John Hervey in his book “Racing in America – 1665-1865” as follows:  “In color a rich chestnut, 15.2 ½ hands tall, he was remarkable for his symmetry of mould and the excellence of his limbs…” 

 Those limbs exhibited whirlwind speed against the top horses of the day such as Daniel Boone, Congaree, Hennie Farrow, Socks and Arthur Macon.   Planet won 27 of 31 races and became the top money winner with nearly $70,000 in purses, a record that stood for 20 years.  

He possessed enormous stamina as well. Those were the days when horses raced in heats ranging from one to four miles, sometimes running as much as 12 miles in one afternoon. Such races would be unthinkable today, as would the practice of racing the horse again after only a three-day layoff, as Planet’s schedule occasionally dictated.

 However, the versatile Planet could win at any distance, long or short, posting some of his best performances at four mile heats. He carried Bullfield’s orange silks on familiar Virginia tracks at Ashland, Petersburg and Broad Rock and further afield on the Southern circuit from New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston and even north to New York.  

 Planet also displayed another form of versatility.  He was an accomplished trotter who could do a mile in three minutes. According to John Hervey, this talent landed him in trouble at the New York track in 1860 where he was being worked at a flying trot before a meet. A race official ordered Planet and his rider off the track, declaring that trotters were not allowed. Other horsemen jumped to Planet’s defense, finally convincing the official to rescind his order against the champion Thoroughbred.

 The Civil War and its aftermath curtailed racing in the South and interrupted what would have been Planet’s best years at stud (1861-1868). During that time, many of the Bullfield horses were hidden in the woods to protect them from marauding horse thieves. Nevertheless, an advertisement of the era proclaimed that “Planet – Virginia’s Unrivalled Race Horse will make his season of 1866 at Bullfield… commencing March 1st and ending July 15th, at $50 the season, with $2 to the groom.”  

 Despite the handicap of war, Planet managed to sire impressive offspring who made turf history of their own.  His blood figures in the pedigrees of Kingman, winner of the 1891 Kentucky Derby; Bowling Brook, winner of the 1895 Belmont Stakes; the great filly Regret who won the Kentucky Derby in 1915; Exterminator, winner of the 1918 Kentucky Derby; and (on the female side) Fleet Nasrullah, successful son of the legendary Nasrullah, the grandsire of Secretariat.

 Planet passed his trotting blood, which flowed from his sire Revenue, to his daughter Dame Winnie. She was bred to Electioneer, the great Standardbred, and produced the champion trotting stallion of his day, Palo Alto. 

 In the custom of the day, Planet’s portrait was painted by the famous equine artist Edward Troye, who at Major Doswell’s insistence, included Planet’s black jockey Jesse in the saddle.  During a raid on Bullfield, the portrait was cut from its frame by Yankee soldiers. It was later found in a ditch and returned to the Doswells by someone who recognized the orange silks worn by Jesse.  

Major Doswell sold Planet to Mr. Alexander of Woodburn Farm in Kentucky, where he lived until his death in 1875 at the age of 20.

Planet and Bullfield influenced not only Thoroughbred history but also the history of  Meadow Stable in neighboring Caroline County.  After Major Doswell died in 1890, his son Bernard inherited a portion of the farm called Hilldene and ran his own small stable there. Bernard’s younger cousin by marriage, Christopher T. Chenery, would walk seven miles from Ashland to Bernard’s farm and exercise his few remaining horses on the old Bullfield track.  Here, Bernard regaled Chris with tales of Bullfield’s glory days, introducing him to a  heady world of gleaming trophies and fine-blooded Thoroughbreds, a world far removed from  the boy’s humble circumstances in Ashland.  Perhaps it is no small coincidence that when Chenery purchased The Meadow in 1936 and began building his foundation bloodlines, he named one of his most prolific mares Hildene.

 And, as everyone knows, The Meadow also produced a great red stallion, one who became Virginia’s and the nation’s “unrivalled racehorse.”  Secretariat, “Big Red,” together with Planet, “the Great Red Fox” of Bullfield  stand as pillars of equine perfection and performance, reminding the world that some of the most magnificent horses of the American turf sprang from Virginia soil.

We will have the honor of attending the Hall of Fame ceremony in Saratoga next Friday with Sarah Wright, the 93-year-old granddaughter of Bernard Doswell and her daughter Cecelia.  Sarah’s meticulous documentation of her family history in her book “The Doswell Dynasty” helped the Secretariat’s Meadow book team offer the nomination of Planet for the Hall of Fame.  You can read more about  Planet, the Doswells and Bullfield in “Secretariat’s Meadow – The Land, The Family, The Legend.”    

by Leeanne Meadows Ladin

co-author of “Secretariat’s Meadow – the Land, the Family, The Legend”

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 other great bloodlines are present in these Derby contenders such as Seattle Slew, Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer for example.   But for the legions of Secretariat fans, the Big Red flame is still burning bright. This is also a source of great pride to us Virginians, as Secretariat was born and first trained at Chris Chenery’s Meadow Stable in Doswell, VA.

Here is the list of the 20 contenders in alphabetical order.      

Alpha   ( A.P. Indy line)
Bodemeister (A.P. Indy and Storm Cat lines) AND Virginia-bred by Audley Farm
Creative Cause (Storm Cat line)
Daddy Long Legs (Storm Cat line)
Daddy Nose Best (Storm Cat line)
Done Talking  (NO Secretariat connection)
Dullahan (NO Secretariat connection)
El Padrino  (A.P.Indy and Gone West lines)
Gemologist (NO Secretariat connection)
Hansen (A.P. Indy and Storm Cat lines)
I’ll Have Another (NO Secretariat connection)
Liaison (A.P. Indy line)

Optimizer (A.P. Indy and Riva Ridge)
Prospective (A.P. Indy line)
Rousing Sermon (A.P. Indy line)
Sabercat  (Storm Cat line)
Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy line)

Trinniberg (Storm Cat line)

Union Rags (Gone West line)
Went the Day Well  (Gone West line)

We will be at Churchill Downs with Penny Chenery and Kate Tweedy, remembering the 98th running of the Derby, won by Riva Ridge  and of course the 99th won by Secretariat.  His track record of 1:59 2/5 still stands almost 40 years later.  Will one of his descendants dare to try and break it? 

by Leeanne Meadows Ladin

co-author, “Secretariat’s Meadow – The Land, The Family, The Legend”

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, has been carefully restored by the SFVA, which owns The Meadow.  It is believed that Mr. Chenery built the barns to closely resemble those at nearby Bullfield Farm in Hanover County, the celebrated racing farm of the Doswells.  He had spent a lot of time there as a young, horse-crazy boy, exercising the few remaining racehorses owned by his cousin Bernard Doswell.

The biggest attraction at the Yearling Barn today is the stall where Riva stayed in 1970 and Secretariat in 1971.  Their stall was the one assigned to the most promising colt.  It was close to the storage and break room so there was a lot of traffic going back and forth.  Its location allowed the Meadow grooms to keep a close eye on each special colt.   The colt also became more acclimated  to the bustle of a working barn, something that would be useful when he was later moved to Lucien Laurin’s stables.

As a yearling, Secretariat already stood out from the crowd.  He was both striking in appearance and spirited in his behavior. 

 “He was frisky and already the boss of the herd,” according to Penny. Dr. Olive Britt, the Meadow veterinarian, said that Secretariat was “sharp to be around.  Only the best grooms could handle him.”

 The grooms surely knew that.   One of them commented that to most effectively handle the sometimes mischievous red colt, “You had to cross your mind with his mind.”  

When you visit The Meadow, you will get to hear some untold stories of Secretariat as a young horse, including one that involved him making an unplanned trip beyond the Yearling Barn.

The next tour for the general public will be Saturday September 10.

Visitors look inside Secretariat’s stall at the Yearling Barn. 

 

The “Secretariat’s Meadow Tours” are sponsored by the SFVA. Private group tours are available for groups of 30 or more at $10 per person.  Tours are also offered to the general public on certain dates.   For more information about the tours, see www.secretariatsmeadow.com  Tours are narrated by Leeanne Meadows Ladin, co-author of “Secretariat’s Meadow – The Land, The Family, The Legend.”  Proceeds from the tours benefit the future Museum of the Virginia Horse to be built at The Meadow.

Leeanne Meadows Ladin

copyright 2011

Covert Action, Secretariat’s Grandson, Finds “Greener Pastures”

 

Secretariat’s descendants are helping to keep his legacy alive! As we get closer to Big Red’s birthday on March 30, we’re writing about some of his progeny here in Virginia.  Our last post was about Rainaway, his great grandson who lives at The Meadow in Doswell. 

 This is Covert Action, a Secretariat grandson, who quite generously, has helped us promote our book “Secretariat’s Meadow.” He lives in Goochland County at the James River Correctional Center.  No, he is not serving time. He is serving as  the resident “spokeshorse” for Greener Pastures, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) farm located there. 

This picture was taken during a barn tour last year of Greener Pastures, where I showed Covert Action the book about his grandfather. I’m not sure he grasped the significance of the occasion as he seemed more interested in looking for carrots. 

At Greener Pastures,  inmates and retired racehorses get a second chance at a new life.  The selected inmates care for the horses in a supervised program and can learn a new career suitable for the horse industry. In fact, Covert Action’s groom has now become a professional farrier.

 The horses learn how to transition from the track, or in some cases from unhealthy environments. Many are later adopted out to permanent, caring homes.   Read more about this inspiring program at www.jamesriverhorses.org.

Covert Action certainly had the pedigree to be a racehorse.  Born in 1995, his lineage included  Mr. Prospector, a very successful stallion whose get have won many of the classic races such as the Kentucky Derby. Even more auspicious, the colt’s grandsire on his dam’s side was our mighty Secretariat.  And Secretariat’s daughters have produced outstanding champions such as A.P.Indy, Storm Cat and Smarty Jones.

But Covert Action did not find much action on the racetrack.  He won only three of his 26 races and earned only $22,000 during his career.  Instead he found another calling, thanks to the  TRF and its dedicated volunteers. He also found a forever home. 

Kate Tweedy and I teamed up with him and TRF again at another book event at a Southern States store.  I believe he would have preferred to chew on our giant book poster but he was far too well-mannered for that! 

Covert Action and  his “cousin” Rainaway,  will be  on hand for “meet and greet” at the Secretariat birthday celebration at The Meadow on March 27.  

Surely Big Red would be glad that two of his descendants have found greener pastures in his home state of Virginia!

By Leeanne Meadows Ladin

copyright 2011

Rainaway, The Mascot of The Meadow

March may come in like a lion but it’s going to go out like a Thoroughbred!

In honor of Big Red’s birthday (March 30) and the  celebration at The Meadow (March 27)  we will be posting stories about his birthplace and his descendants all month.

We’ll start with a descendant who actually lives at The Meadow…a great-grandson named Rainaway.

The chestnut gelding, born in 1994, was sired by Summer Squall, winner of the 1990 Preakness. Summer Squall’s dam was the very successful broodmare Weekend Surprise, a daughter of Secretariat.  Rainaway earned over $90,000 during his racing career before retiring at the age of six in 2000.

Somehow he ended up on a farm in Blountville, Tennessee on the verge of starvation with several other hapless horses.  In 2007, the farm’s owner was arrested for animal cruelty and the rescue organization, Horse Haven of Tennessee, mercifully took over the care of Rainaway and his stablemates.

HHT nursed  the emaciated horse back to health. He gained weight  and his dull coat regained its bright chestnut shine.  That he could recover from such unconscionable neglect speaks to the stamina inherent in his famous genes, as well to  the excellent care he received from his rescuers.

HHT found him a new home as the “mascot” of The Meadow, the birthplace of his great-grandsire in Doswell, Virginia. In September 2008, Rainaway made his first appearance at the State Fair of Virginia, which owns The Meadow.  He lived at a nearby farm while the State Fair completed its move from the old fairgrounds in Richmond to the rolling green fields of Caroline County. By 2009, Rainaway was settled in at The Meadow,  free to gallop in his spacious paddock and play with his beloved companion goats.

Today he continues to greet visitors at the annual State Fair and events such as the Equine Extravaganza and now Secretariat’s birthday party.  Rainaway will also be available to make an appearance during  the customized group tours now offered at The Meadow. 

From his paddock,   Rainaway has a panoramic view of The Meadow and the historic land where a bold young chestnut stallion once galloped.   Surely Rainaway can see that he’s home.

Our next post will be about Secretariat’s grandson Covert Action, who lives in nearby Goochland County.  Both he and Rainaway will be at the birthday party  on March 27.

Leeanne Meadows Ladin

copyright 2011

A Good Hand on a Horse…the Grooms of Meadow Stable

                                       

In honor of February as Black History Month, we’d like to share some stories about the African-American grooms of The Meadow in Doswell, Virginia, birthplace of Secretariat.  Though they were never well known like Secretariat’s racetrack groom Eddie Sweat and exercise rider Charlie Davis,  the grooms in Doswell were the first to take care of Big Red and the other champions of Chris Chenery’s Meadow Stable.  

Though some of the men had passed away before Kate Tweedy and I started working on “Secretariat’s Meadow” in 2007, we were able to interview several of the grooms over time and even do a videotaped oral history.  They shared stories that had never been told and we are greatly indebted to them for so vividly enriching our book.

Here is the excerpt of their chapter from”Secretariat’s Meadow:”

” A Good Hand on a Horse…the Grooms of Meadow Stable.”  

They grew up working with their hands in the rural Caroline County of the post-Depression years.  Local jobs were scarce and mostly limited to cutting pulpwood for the local sawmill, working on the railroad, in a mechanic shop or as a farm laborer. But the calloused black hands of the men who became the grooms of Meadow Stable would touch some of the greatest Thoroughbreds in racing …and leave their own indelible imprint on the history of The Meadow.

Their names did not appear in the headlines or record books, but Lewis Tillman, Sr. and Lewis Tillman, Jr., Bannie Mines, Alvin Mines, Charlie Ross, Wesley Tillman, Garfield Tillman, Raymond “Peter Blue” Goodall, Howard Gregory and others from the closeknit web of local families most assuredly contributed to the success of Meadow Stable. Personally selected for their jobs, these men would be entrusted with the daily care of the valuable broodmares and their foals, helping with the early training of skittish colts and fillies, the transportation of finely-tuned racehorses and the handling of powerful stallions in the breeding shed.

Wesley Tillman came to work at The Meadow as a youngster.  In 1946, at the age of twelve, he began helping in the hay fields with his grandfather Samuel Tillman during the summer.

“My grandfather said, ‘If you’re big enough to walk all the way down here to the farm, you’re big enough to work.’  So he gave me a pitchfork and I started throwing hay on the wagon. That was my first job,” Tillman said. He made two dollars a day.

 By age eighteen, he was helping his uncle Lewis Tillman,Sr., who was in charge of the broodmare barn. They would turn the horses out in the morning after feeding and get them back up in the evening.  In the meantime, they would clean out the stalls and put in fresh bedding. When the mares and foals came back up from the Cove in the evening, they would feed them and put them in their stalls for the night. Wesley also pulled night watch duty when mares were getting ready to foal.

 His next job was “up the hill” to the yearling barn. “That’s when I started breaking horses,” Tillman said.  “You had to be real gentle with any horse and take your time with them. If you groomed them right, they would even get to like you so you could get them to cooperate with you.”  

 The next stop for young horses was the training center located across Route 30 where they would begin to learn the fundamentals of racing. The grooms would saddle the horses up for the exercise riders for the day’s work on the Meadow track. Afterwards, the grooms would wash the horses, brush them down and put them on the hot walker (a mechanical walking machine) for awhile. Lastly, they would lead them back to the barn and turn them out into the fields until feeding time. In between their grooming duties, the men would cut grass, fix fences, paint barns or do other chores around the farm.

Tillman, along with other grooms, sometimes traveled with the horses when they were shipped out as two-year-olds to the training stables in Hialeah, New York or Delaware. As they would see, it was a different world outside the rolling green fields of The Meadow. 

“Everybody was treated equally at the farm,” Tillman said.  “I didn’t see any racism.  We were all like a big family.”   

But on the road, in those days of segregation, “coloreds” were not allowed in many restaurants or hotels.  “I had to stay back in the back with the horses from here to New York,” Tillman explained.  When the van stopped for lunch, the white driver, Bill Street,  would bring him his meal which he ate in the van as the racehorses munched their hay and occasionally sneezed on his food.  If the grooms did take a break from the van, they had to go the back door of the restaurant to get a sandwich or eat in the kitchen with the cooks. Mostly they shrugged it off as part of their job.  

At the racetrack, the Meadow grooms would stay with the horses for maybe three or four weeks.  “We had our bunks right on the end of the barn, so  if anything happened, like if the horses would get down in the stall or start kicking,  we’d be right there with them,” Tillman said.   After new grooms were hired and the horses were settled in, the Meadow grooms would return to Virginia to start working with the next crop of young hopefuls.

Alvin Mines first came to The Meadow at the age of eight or nine, tagging along with his grandfather Lewis Tillman, Sr., who was affectionately called “the Mayor of Duval Town.”  (their nearby community)   He remembers playing in the fields with the other grandchildren until feeding time when his grandfather would call the mares and foals up from their pasture in the Cove.

“Man, the horses used to come running up, maybe about fifteen of them with their colts and the foals,” Mines recalled. “I remember we’re grabbing round his leg because we thought the horses would run us over. He said, ‘Don’t worry, the horse is not going to bother you.’ And sure enough, they’d come up and they’d just circle around you and go on.”

Alvin began working at Barn 33, also known as “First Landing’s Motel” around 1974. (First Landing was the sire of Riva Ridge.) There with groom Clarence Fells he helped with the visiting mares who were to be serviced by the Meadow stallions. Often the mares had foals at their sides, who did not want to leave their mothers for even a few minutes.

“I had to hold the foals and then you were in a rassling match!” Mines said.

Next he worked at the broodmare barn with his uncle Lewis Tillman, Jr.  Later he went across the road to work at the racetrack/training center, with his brother-in-law Raymond Goodall. Goodall was the chief groom for Riva Ridge.

He taught the short and stocky Alvin how to handle the tall, high-headed Thoroughbreds who often did not want to have a halter or bridle put on them. It seemed that farm manager Howard Gentry liked to test the young groom by giving him the tallest horse in the barn to lead.  Mines recalled being jerked off the ground more than once.

The grooms who had a special way with horses were highly respected at the farm.  This was particularly true of Howard Gregory, who worked at The Meadow for nearly thirty-two years.  He was known as “the stud man.”

He began as a farm worker, making twenty-five dollars a week in the 1940s.  Like the other grooms, he had no prior experience with horses, other than some farm mules. He simply learned by doing, mostly under the watchful eye of Howard Gentry, who supervised all the breeding.

He had been working at the training track for several years when Gentry offered him the job taking care of the stallions, along with a raise. “He told me I had a good hand on a horse and no fear,” Gregory recalled. “I had five young children to take care of, so I took the job. I did not know what I was getting into!”

He took charge of six stallions, each of which had his own paddock. Breeding time was around 2:00 p.m. each day in the breeding shed. Some days there would be four or five mares to be serviced. 

 “I had three horses that died in there,” Gregory noted.  “One was Third Brother, a full brother to Hill Prince. He just dropped dead after breeding the mare.” Another time, a stallion fell over dead, nearly crushing Howard Gregory and Howard Gentry against the wall.

One stallion, named Tillman in honor of Lewis Tillman, did little to flatter his namesake. He was especially rank and ill-tempered. “That horse looked to kill you!” Gregory said, adding that the horse would charge at any groom who entered his paddock.  Gregory was the only one who could handle him. “I had many people come watch me,” he said of those who came to learn his techniques.

His favorite stallion was First Landing.  “He was very, very mannerable,” Gregory noted. “When I would take him around to breed, you’d never hear him squeal or make a whimper or nothing.”

Despite the inherent dangers of his job, Gregory said, “I would turn back the hands of time” to do it all over again.

Charlie Ross also came to the Meadow in the early years. He would earn the distinction of being the last Virginia groom to take care of Secretariat before the colt was shipped down to Lucien Laurin’s training stable in Hialeah in January 1972. Though track groom Eddie Sweat and exercise rider Charlie Davis were more closely affiliated with “Big Red” during his meteoric racing career, it was Charlie Ross, along with trainer Meredith “Mert” Bailes, who helped start Secretariat under saddle. 

Ross had been working at the farm for over twenty years when Secretariat was transferred over to the training center and became one of his charges. He held the colt while Bailes first “backed” him, laying himself over the colt’s back to get him accustomed to human weight. He was the groom who led Secretariat around with his first rider, Bailes, in the saddle. 

“Yeah, he sat up on the saddle in the stall and I turned him around in the stall, waiting until he got used to that. Then the next move we would take him out in the big round shed and we’d walk him around in there until he’d get used to that,” Ross recalled.  He added that Secretariat did not act up or buck like some of the other horses did in those circumstances.

Typically taciturn, Ross admits he was a part of history. Then a flash of pride breaks through and he says, “They called me The Man,” for his way with horses. He agreed that the early care a young horse receives can influence him for life.

Alvin Mines put it best.  He said, “I think the horses, once they got the feel of the grooms that were working with them, there was something that growed up in them, you know. They go to someone else’s hands when they leave here, but I think the horses always know who had the first hand on them.”

 Meadow groom Lewis Tillman holding a colt for his Jockey Club ID photo. Photo by Bob Hart. 

Note:  To see what the grooms said about Secretariat and Riva Ridge as colts, read Chapters 11 and 12 in “Secretariat’s Meadow.”

by Leeanne Meadows Ladin

copyright 2011

This excerpt may not be reprinted without permission.

Guided Tour Program Starting at The Meadow, Birthplace of Secretariat

Millions of moviegoers saw the screen version of The Meadow, Secretariat’s Virginia birthplace, in the Disney movie “Secretariat.” Soon fans of “Big Red”will be able to visit the very grounds where the immortal 1973 Triple Crown winner was born. This spring, The Meadow Event Park, owned by SFVA, will begin offering guided tours of “Big Red’s” famed birthplace in Doswell, Virginia, just north of Richmond.  

I am very excited about this because I will be the guide! As co-author of the book “Secretariat’s Meadow – The Land, The Family, The Legend,” with Kate Chenery Tweedy (Penny Chenery’s daughter) I have lived and breathed the history and the mystique of The Meadow for several years.  I will share behind-the-scenes stories about the circa 1805 farm, its famous stallions and broodmares, and the people who lived and worked there during its heyday.

 Highlights of the tour will include seeing the foaling shed where Secretariat was born on March 30, 1970; the yearling and training barns with the stalls where Secretariat and  Riva Ridge (Meadow Stable’s first Kentucky Derby winner) stayed as young colts; the stallion barns; the fabled Cove, where the broodmares and foals grazed (pictured in our blog headline);  a horse cemetery; and much more!

Secretariat’s Meadow Tours will involve a tram ride, some walking and an indoor presentation which features video clips of Secretariat’s 1973 Triple Crown races.  Tour guests will have the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of Secretariat’s Meadow.  Proceeds from the tours will benefit the future Museum of the Virginia Horse to be built at The Meadow.

There will be two types of tours:  customized tours for groups which may be booked from March to December; and a limited schedule of tours for the general public.  The customized  tours are available for groups which may be renting The Meadow Event Park facilities for meetings, trade shows, horse shows and other functions, as well as for groups such as historical societies, civic and alumni organizations, book clubs and the like.   The basic cost is $10 per person, with a 40 guest minimum.  Other special features can be added to the tour for additional fees. For instance, a group could add a lunch or reception or perhaps a horseshoeing demonstration by a farrier. We can even arrange for a “photo op” with Rainaway, Secretariat’s great-grandson who lives on the property. The basic tour takes about an hour and advance registration is required.

 The general public tours are slated for March 27, May 7 and July 23.  The public tour cost is  $10 per person, $5 for children under 12, with a 40-guest minimum. Advance registration is required. More public tour dates may be added to the schedule as demand warrants. 

You can read more details about the customized group tours and the public tours at www.meadoweventpark.com. The Meadow Event Park is located off I-95, exit 98 to Doswell, 1.5 miles east of King’s Dominion, about 25 miles north of Richmond.  

You can learn more about the history of  The Meadow and its famous Thoroughbreds  at our website www.secretariatsmeadow.com (and order our book!)   

             

Leeanne Meadows Ladin

copyright 2011