Secretariat

Since I wanted to write about the movie Secretariat tonight, I thought I needed some kind of picture. We do have a few horses on the farm and I thought Cara bore a bit of resemblance to Secretariat, so here you see her eye. In fact, if you go see the movie, you’ll see some close-up shots of the horse’s eye.





Everyone has vivid memories of certain events, and the day Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby is one of mine. I was a young mother working part-time at a bank. All of the girls in bookkeeping and a few of the tellers were into a little gaming. I don’t remember exactly how we handled our betting but the limit was a small amount of money. For one thing, none of us had more than a few dollars to put into something like that. We did our betting on Friday afternoon and the plan was to settle up on Monday. My money was on Secretariat and I loved the sound of his name. I had never paid a bit of attention to a horse race before but I’ve rarely missed watching The Run for the Roses since his win in 1973. Of course, going on to see him win the Triple Crown really turned me into a fan of horse racing, although I’ve never been one to bet much.
I’ve never been to a Kentucky Derby. In fact, I’ve never been to Churchill Downs; but MH and I have been to Keeneland in Lexington, KY a few times. We have a friend who has owned a few race horses in his time so he always got us a great spot to watch the races. Our friend has retired from the horse business and we haven’t been to Lexington in a long time, but I count those times as some of our more enjoyable trips. The bluegrass country in Kentucky is beautiful and worth the trip even if you don’t go to the races. We also love antiques and we’ve bought some of our best pieces in the Lexington and Louisville area.
We loved the movie Seabiscuit but we were really excited that there was a movie in the works for Secretariat. I have been marking the days like a woman in jail until the movie came out. Yesterday afternoon we went to see it and it is truly one of the best movies we’ve been to in years. Don’t miss it! I don’t think it would matter whether or not you care a bit about horse racing. It is a great movie.





It is always hard to get a decent picture of Cara because when you come near, she is feeling pretty sure you are bringing something good to eat so she comes right to the fence. The fence is not real pretty but if you want a picture of Cara, you get the fence in the deal. Oh, well. She is no Secretariat, but she is a sweet thing.