Helen “Penny” Bates Chenery was born on January 27, 1922, in Westchester County, New York. From her early years, Penny loved horses, thanks in large part to her father, Christopher Tompkins Chenery, he being named after his grandmother, Emily Sophia Tompkins Chenery. Penny marveled at the athleticism and grace of horses, having once said, “I really believe they are noble.”
In 1936, when Penny was 14 years of age, her parents purchased The Meadows, a 2,000+ acre estate in Doswell, later creating the Meadow Stable, one of the most successful Thoroughbred breeding farms in the country.
Penny’s early adulthood was remarkable as she exited Smith College in 1943, working as an assistant at a company that designed landing craft for the Normandy invasion. Before the invasion, however, Penny decided to volunteer for the Red Cross, and traveled to France in 1945 as a “Doughnut Girl” to aid exhausted soldiers as they prepared to head home. Her ability to relate to others no doubt aided her as she entered the public eye of the horse racing community in later years. Penny then attended Columbia University’s business school, one of 20 women in her class, where she met her husband John “Jack” Tweedy. The couple had four children, and lived in the Denver, Colorado area.
In 1967, much changed in Penny’s life: her mother, Helen Clementina Bates Chenery died in late 1967, her father’s health was failing, and her two siblings planned to sell the formerly profitable Meadow Stable, as it was now losing money. Penny agreed to take over management of stable operations, with the help of her siblings and her father’s business assistant. Penny commuted monthly from Colorado to Virginia, and few in the business took her seriously. For several more years, Meadow Stable continued to lose money. The tide began to turn in 1971 when her colt Riva Ridge won 2-year-old of the Year. Just before Penny’s father’s death in early 1973, Riva Ridge won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, and Secretariat, the chestnut Thoroughbred born in 1970, was named 1972 horse of the year by the Thoroughbred Racing Association.
Secretariat was gained in a losing coin toss! Penny lost out on the first foal, The Bride, produced by Bold Ruler and Penny’s broodmare, Somethingroyal. Secretariat, the yet-unborn, Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal foal, would go to Penny next year. Remarkably, after Secretariat’s naming as horse of the year at age two in 1972, Penny deftly orchestrated a plan to syndicate Secretariat
before any of his Triple Crown victories. Penny called on the new head of Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, the son of her father’s longtime associate, Bull Hancock. Bull Hancock had just passed on, and 23-year-old Seth Hancock, fresh at the helm, took a chance on Secretariat. The transaction yielded an opportunity to settle Meadow Stable’s estate taxes without liquidating the farm’s bloodstock, at an unprecedented price of $6.08 million and contractual terms called for him to race for Meadow Stable in 1973. In a few short days, young Seth Hancock pulled off the transaction with both known clients and new investors. The rest, as they say, was history, as Secretariat became a Triple Crown Winner in 1973, also gracing the cover of Time Magazine. Secretariat was the most celebrated racehorse of all time and the only non-human ranked among ESPN’s 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century.
Photo Credit: Claiborne Farm
In a 1972 interview, Penny had said that her role was not at all unusual for a woman, stating, “A number of women run racing stables. It actually precedes women’s lib.” Penny referenced the late Isabel Dodge Sloane, who was mistress of Brookmeade Farm in the 1920s in Upperville, Virginia (Fauquier County).
After Secretariat’s retirement, Penny became an ambassador for Thoroughbred racing and continued after Secretariat’s death in 1989. Penny became the first female president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and president. She was one of the first women admitted to The Jockey Club and helped found the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, dedicated to saving Thoroughbred horses no longer able to compete on the racetrack from neglect, abuse and slaughter. Penny established the Secretariat Vox Populi award which honors racing’s most popular horse each year, as well as the Secretariat Foundation, which supports a variety of charities in the racing community. Penny was honored in 2006 with the Eclipse Award of Merit for her lifetime contributions to the Thoroughbred industry and has advocated for research and equine care advancement, along with banning use of performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing.
Helen “Penny” Bates Chenery died on September 16, 2017 at her home in Boulder, Colorado at the age of 95.
Resources
Newspapers.com, The Montana Standard, Butte, Montana, “Penny Chenery, owner of Triple Crown champ Secretariat, dies,” by Beth Harris, AP Racing Writer, September 2017
Newspapers.com, The Star-Democrat, Easton, Maryland, “Chenery, owner of Secretariat, dies at 95,” WPNS, September 2017
Newspapers.com, The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, “Christopher T. Chenery, 86, Owned the Derby Winner,” UPI, January 1973
The New York Times, New York, New York, “Secretariat Is Horse of Year, Topping La Prevoyante in Poll,” by Steve Cady, December 1972
The Bee, Danville, Virginia, “Helen Chenery Tweedy Rapidly Gaining Prominence; Owns Racehorse, Riva Ridge,” by Christine Darg, Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 1972
Claiborne Farm, “The History of Claiborne Farm,” August 24, 2021, https://claibornefarm.com/history/
Barbara C. Lagasse – CHS Lifetime Member