Derby Day events include visits with Groundshaker, a great-great-granddaughter of Secretariat. (Photo courtesy Meadow Event Park)
This weekend, Meadow Event Park is celebrating the Kentucky Derby in style.
From May 3-5, the multi-use facility — and birthplace of the legendary Secretariat — is hosting the Virginia Horse Festival. Activities include clinics on horse riding, a showcase of different horse breeds and equestrian competition. Visitors can participate in events such as horse-rider yoga and watch skilled equestrians navigate an obstacle course.
Tickets to the festival are $12 in advance and $15 at the gate; children 12 and under can enter for free. But for $50, horse-racing enthusiasts can attend the Derby Day party from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Meadow Hall Mansion. Kate Chenery Tweedy, daughter of the late Penny Chenery, Secretariat’s owner, will be a special guest. (Tickets for both the Derby party and festival are $60.) Those tickets are on sale through April 30. A three-day pass is also available for $20 through May 1.
"If you can't be in Louisville, you should be at the birthplace of the greatest racehorse of all time, and that's here at Meadow," says Leeanne Ladin, tourism manager. "Folks get dressed up. There's a fancy hat contest. And if your hat is Secretariat-themed, your chances of winning are pretty high."
The Derby Day events include a tram tour of the barns where Secretariat was raised, and a visit with Groundshaker, a great-great-granddaughter of the champion racehorse, and “barn buddy” Mia the mini.
Until the 1990s, the facility was known as Meadow Stable, and it produced back-to-back Kentucky Derby winners in 1972 and '73. Before Secretariat, the racehorse Riva Ridge won the 1972 Derby. In 1973, Secretariat broke the track records at all three Triple Crown events: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. His records still stand today.
Currently, the park is engaged in fundraising for the Secretariat Heritage Center, a museum dedicated to the famous racehorse. The project involves renovating the barns on property and adding educational features. Kate Tweedy is heading up a national capital campaign to raise $2.5 million for the project.
Initial plans for the Secretariat Heritage Center focus on restoring the original barns. (Photo courtesy of Meadow Event Park)
"By 2020, we hope to have enough money to start repairs on some 80-year-old barns," Ladin says. "The barns are on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the [National] Register of Historic Places. We also want to use some of the areas in the barns for more exhibits. We want to re-create some of the spaces to look like they did in Secretariat's day."
Plans also include adding a life-sized statue of Secretariat and enhancing the Meadow Hall Mansion as a museum and conference center.
Nowadays, Meadow Event Park plays host to events year-round, from a holiday lights festival to a Tough Mudder challenge and the Virginia State Fair. But perhaps no event is more central to the park's history than the Horse Festival.
"Horses are a huge industry in Virginia," said Ladin. "With this being the birthplace of Secretariat, there's a conscious effort to pay attention to the equine heritage of this property. Even though it's no longer a racehorse training facility, we definitely do a lot to maintain that legacy."
Ladin adds that the park hopes to have the Heritage Center open by the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown achievement in 2023.
For a full schedule of Virginia Horse Festival events, see virginiahorsefestival.com.
