Penny Chenery

Penny Chenery, who took over her father’s thoroughbred farm with little knowledge of horse racing and became one of the few prominent women in the sport as the owner and breeder of Secretariat, perhaps the fastest horse who ever raced, died on Saturday September 16 2017 at her home in Boulder, Colo. She was 95. When Secretariat died at 19 in 1989, Ms. Chenery, who oversaw his fortunes as the manager of her family’s Meadow Stable in Virginia, recalled how he had enthralled so many in troubled times. Ms. Chenery first gained prominence in 1972, when Secretariat was horse of the year as a 2-year-old and his 3-year-old stablemate Riva Ridge, who is not mentioned in the film, won both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. In 1973, when Secretariat became the first Triple Crown winner since Citation, in 1948, and was again horse of the year, Ms. Chenery, then known as Penny Tweedy, followed figures like Lucille Markey of Calumet Farm; Elizabeth Arden Graham of Main Chance Farm; and Allaire C. duPont, owner of the champion gelding Kelso, in the limited circle of thoroughbred racing’s well-known women. Helen Bates Chenery was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., on Jan. 27, 1922, and grew up in nearby Pelham Manor, a daughter of Christopher T. Chenery, who made his fortune organizing public utility holding companies. She rode in shows as a youngster, developing a love for horses from her father, who took part in polo matches and fox hunts. In 1936, Christopher Chenery bought the Meadow, a 2,600-acre property in Doswell, Va., near Richmond, that had once been his family’s estate but had fallen out of its hands after the Civil War. He developed it into a racing and breeding operation known for outstanding broodmares. Penny Chenery graduated from Smith College, worked for the Red Cross in Europe during World War II and was taking graduate courses in business at Columbia University when she met John Bayard Tweedy. After their marriage in 1949, they lived in Denver, where he was a lawyer and businessman. They raised four children and she engaged in charitable work. When Christopher Chenery became limited by Alzheimer’s disease and his wife, Helen, died, she was designated by her brother, Hollis Chenery, and her sister, Margaret Carmichael, to take over Meadow Stable. She studied thoroughbred publications and obtained advice from Meadow’s managers and the noted horseman Arthur B. Hancock, known as Bull, of Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, determined to keep Meadow financially sound and to carry on her father’s legacy. She got Secretariat after losing a coin toss with the Phipps family of Wheatley Stable as to who would have first choice of foals from two Meadow mares that had been bred to Wheatley’s renowned stallion Bold Ruler. Meadow Stable wound up with the Somethingroyal-Bold Ruler foal born there on March 30, 1970, and named Secretariat by the Meadow executive Elizabeth Ham, who had worked for the old League of Nations in Geneva. The Chenery family sold the Meadow in 1979. Survivors include her sons, John and Chris Tweedy; her daughters, Sarah Manning and Kate Tweedy; a stepson, Jon Ringquist, from her marriage to her second husband, Lennart Ringquist, which ended in divorce; and six grandchildren.