The Secretariat exhibit at the gallery at Main Street Station (Photo by Leeanne Meadows Ladin)
How many race horse names can you come up with?
Me, off the top of my head, two: the first because of history, Man O’ War, and then Secretariat. The latter stallion was born at Meadow Stables, near Doswell in Caroline County, and grew up to be, as many observed, the perfect horse, and winner of the 1973 Triple Crown. On this 45th anniversary of that victory, the gallery at Main Street Station's Virginia Welcome Center presents the life and times of this most famous thoroughbred. And, on Saturday, the Meadow Event Park holds its first-ever Derby Day event.
Jeannie Welliver, who oversees the public use of Main Street Station, is enthusiastic about the site as a gateway into the region. The 1901 building, just gone through a $91.5 million makeover, paid mostly by federal and state funds, features a magnificent concourse level event venue that's booked and busy. Welliver says she’s spent about half her life involved in the ongoing project of Main Street Station. “I love this place and what it means to Richmond,” she says. “It’s our landmark, our Eiffel Tower.”
The gallery adjacent to the welcome center gives visitors a glimpse of our history and contemporary life. The current exhibit is meaningful to Welliver, since she's from here, and when a youngster, through a family friend, she met Secretariat. “We went to see him before he raced the Derby,” Welliver recalls. Secretariat, at 2, was already making a name for himself. “My mom worked at Reynolds Metals, and her boss, Ralph Fields, asked us if we wanted to see this horse run.” And she did.
Secretariat’s track speed records at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont remain unbroken. There was something in that blood, and breeders are well aware. Of the 20 horses running the Derby this year, 17 trace their pedigree back to Secretariat.
Meanwhile, in Doswell, Leeanne Meadows Ladin manages Secretariat tourism at the Meadow Event Park, across from Kings Dominion. She also co-authored “Secretariat’s Meadow: The Land, the Family, the Legend.”
The Derby Day event runs 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Meadow Hall on May 5, in an evening sponsored by Meadow Event Park and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF). The Derby Day festivities are also in part designed to raise awareness and funds for the landmarked Meadow Stables.
Besides food, mint juleps, racing memorabilia on display at the mansion and four screens to watch the action, there will be real horses on view: the “prima donna” Groundshaker, Secretariat’s great-great-granddaughter, the last racehorse that Penny Chenery (who bred and raced Secretariat) bred and raised. “I saw her as a foal in 2011, and I went to the Derby with Penny, which was like going with the Queen of England,” says Ladin. Groundshaker, who grew up to 17 hands high — “She’s a big girl,” Ladin says — wasn’t as successful a racer. At the other end, visitors will meet tiny Mia, Groundshaker’s barn buddy. “There’ll be photo ops aplenty,” Ladin says. Radio personality Bill Bevins will judge a Derby hat contest, and there will be an auction to support TRF and the restoration project.
Attendees will enjoy the mansion and sit on the veranda that faces the historic barns. Ladin observes, “We want to restore these barns and open them more to folks see what it was like in its heyday.”
Tickets for the Derby Day festivities are $75 a person and, as of this writing, almost gone, but you can still visit the Meadow Event Park for the year-round, by-appointment Secretariat tour, and it’s also where the State Fair of Virginia is held each year.
The Main Street Station exhibition — featuring the world’s largest horse shoe — will be up through July at 1500 E. Main St. in Richmond.
