I was 9 years old when I watched Big Red win the Triple Crown. No one who witnessed this last leg of the Triple Crown races on that lovely summer day in June 1973 will ever forget it. The feeling of seeing that Big Red horse coming around the final turn to home all alone - well, it's hard to express in words the overwhelming sense of joy, the feeling that this was a once in a lifetime moment and you were watching it all unfold right before your very eyes. It was as if the world came to a stop, time stood still, everything seemed to run in slow motion...how could this be, its' never been done before, how could this horse, any horse, sustain this speed at this distance? But he did it, the Big Red horse was running HIS race! He finished the race an astonishing 31 lengths ahead of the other horses in the field - no horse has ever duplicated such a feat...Secretariat is THE best race horse that ever lived! I will forever be grateful that I lived to see Secretariat run his race! I didn't understand at 9 years old the remarkable odds that brought Secretariat to this moment. Although, I saw the pictures of the nice lady, Penny Tweety Chenery, in magazines, I only knew her as the lady who owned Secretariat. My young heart never understood the incredible mountain of odds that she faced to run HER race!
How many of us have been on that sweet edge of possibilities...not knowing what lay ahead, which path to choose? Should we risk everything and grab a hold of that moment, that wonderful defining, once in a lifetime moment that changes everything? Or should we play it safe and tell ourselves that we can't risk it, the odds are too great, it's impossible, I'm not strong enough...I just can't? As I watched the movie, Secretariat, tonight for the 5th time, I was once again overwhelmed by the thought that Penny Chenery didn't know what lay ahead. She didn't have the benefit of knowing - the end of the story - what the outcome of this race would be. But she believed in her Dad, his knowledge and wisdom and her horse. I don't know that I would have been so strong, so courageous. I might have taken the $8 million Mr. Phipps offered Penny to buy her horse before he even raced the Triple Crown. How could you really turn it down? I mean after all, everyone thought she was in over her head - her brother, her husband - they wanted her to sell the farm, the horses. The farm was in debt and she had syndicated her horse, Secretariat, for a whopping unheard of - $6 million. Can you imagine the pressure she was under, the stress...the money she owed? I mean we are not talking about a few $100! Penny had little to no support, both from her family and society as a whole (viewed as just a housewife) to choose the path she did. But she believed in her dream, her abilities and in her horse... I am so happy she believed and ran HER race! Because she believed she inspired a nation and a little girl in Pennsylvania who was happily riding ponies, who grasped a hold of a dream - that one day she would ride a thoroughbred. That little girl did, in fact, ride not one but many thoroughbred horses! The picture at the top of this page is of me and my thoroughbred, Rite Nite, flying!
I don't know that all of us will have such a defining moment in our lives, at least, certainly not on such a public stage as Penny and Secretariat. But no matter...I am encouraged today to run MY race, to see my hopes and dreams to their fruition. I'm once again inspired to not allow doubt and fear to get in my way...but to be courageous enough to reach for that which I know could be... I want to run MY race!
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