How a housewife saved a failing stable and produced the greatest racehorse in history

Cultures · Published 10 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: When her father fell ill, Penny Chenery stepped into the male-dominated world of thoroughbred racing to rescue his neglected Meadow Stable. Against industry expectations, she transformed the operation, eventually managing the career of Secretariat, the legendary colt who shattered records and captured the world's imagination in 1973.

Born in 1922, Penny Chenery was the daughter of Christopher Chenery, a self-made millionaire who founded Meadow Stable in 1936. Despite her early love for horses, Chenery followed a traditional path for her era, attending Smith College and later Columbia Business School, where she was one of only 20 women in a class of 800. Her life shifted in 1967 when her father’s health declined, leaving the family’s Virginia breeding operation in financial disarray. While her siblings advocated for selling the business, Chenery fought to preserve her father’s dream of winning the Kentucky Derby.

Taking the helm in 1968, Chenery proved to be a shrewd operator. She overhauled the stable’s management, cut costs, and eventually hired trainer Lucien Laurin. Her instincts were validated when the homebred Riva Ridge won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. That same year, a two-year-old colt named Secretariat began a historic run. While her father had orchestrated the breeding deal with Ogden Phipps that produced the horse, it was Chenery who navigated the complex logistics of his racing career, leading to his 1973 Triple Crown victory—the first in 25 years.

Beyond the track, Chenery became a trailblazer for women in the sport. In 1983, she and two others became the first women admitted to The Jockey Club. She also co-founded the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation to protect aging horses. By the time of her death in 2017 at age 95, she had been honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit and named a Pillar of the Turf by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, cementing her legacy as a transformative figure in equestrian history.

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