This is the story of a housewife that raised and raced the greatest horse to have ever set hoof on a track. It is not just a heart-warming tale, but a lesson in how being bold, taking risks and spinning the right story makes for legends. You’d be surprised what you can learn about business and PR from a horse and a housewife!
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In the Spring of 1970, a champion was born. Secretariat, one of the largest and most celebrated race horses to have ever lived, came into this world on the losers side of a coin toss with a housewife struggling to save her family’s farm as the owner. The coin toss between self proclaimed “housewife,” Penny Chenery and Ogden Phipps was over who would have first choice of the foals in a breeding with celebrated champion, Bold Ruler. Chenery lost the bet and Phipps chose the weanling filly from mare, Somethingroyal. Chenery’s colt, born on March 30, 1970 remained unnamed for nearly a year until the Jockey Club finally accepted the name Secretariat, submitted on a ruse by Chenery’s Secretary. He stood tall at approximately 16 hands 2 inches and raced at a weight of 1,175. At 2 years old, he started a winning streak that resulted in him becoming the first Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmost Stakes) winner in 25 years and only the 9th in history.
Altogether, Secretariat, not only saved Chenery’s farm, but he also won 16 of his 21 career races, with three seconds and one third, for an in the money finish in 20 of 21 starts, and total earnings of $1,316,808. He sired more than 600 foals during his retirement, including dozens of champions. After his death in 1989, it was discovered that his heart weighed 22 pounds, the largest ever recorded for a racehorse. Secretariat’s greatness was so pervasive in American culture at the time, that he even graced the cover of Time Magazine during the greatest political sandal of all time, Watergate. His posthumous awards included:
- The rare honor for a racehorse to be buried whole as opposed to the customary burying of the head only.
- His image was selected for a special edition 33 cent postage stamp
- He was listed as number 35 on ESPNs 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century list (the highest of 3 non humans on the list)
- He was included in the Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
- He is the only non human to have made ESPNs classic, Who’s No. 1? in the list of “Greatest Sports Performances”
- He was the first animal ever inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame
But what made Secretariat so endeared to the nation, was not just his amazing performances, but his story. In the late 60s and early 70s, the horseracing world was dominated by men and races were run by all the usual suspects. Then, comes, Penny Chenery, a Smith College graduate, coaxed out of her comfortable 18-year housewife’s life, only by the impending sale of her father’s struggling horse breeding farm.
To the bold go the glory and Penny Chenery was a bold woman, who took the chances necessary to build a dynasty within horse racing. Secretariat’s successes were not the result of mere happenstance; they were the result of an impassioned, slightly desperate and bold woman who would not accept failure for herself, her horse or her farm. Her risks were carefully calculated. She arranged expensive breedings that ensured champion bloodlines in her stable, hired one of the most unconventional trainers in the business and made wild and bold proclamations at press conferences about her horses. She, quite literally, bet the farm on Secretariat and invested all she had in time, money, resources and network into her business and she was unafraid to lose it all if her bets did not pay off. Luckily, in Chenery’s case, her bets paid off honored for her achievements and, alongside Allaire du Pont, became one of the first women admitted as a member to The Jockey Club then later, the first woman elected to office within The Jockey Club.
What Penny Chereny did with Secretariat was not just race a world class athlete, but she also spun a world class story. She would have us think that the horse’s fate was left in the hands of a coin toss and housewife and again, just luck that propelled Secretariat to defy all odds to achieve the impossible. But, in reality, it was the passion and dedication of one single house wife with a good head on her shoulders and a stomach to bet the farm that allowed her to spin the tale of this horse into legend.
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