The Kentucky Derby—Oaks and Derby as the folks at Churchill
Downs like to call it—is the first weekend in May, coming right up this May 3rd
and 4th. Although the big
race itself lasts only two minutes, this event has been drawing thousands of
people to Louisville for the last 139 years.
I’ve never been myself, but I remember well the year 1973 when one
particular horse made the headlines. I
was a young teacher then and didn’t care so much about horses, yet to this day
I still remember the stories that followed about one very spirited horse who outran his
closest competitor by more than thirty lengths at the Belmont to win the Triple Crown. It was Penny Chenery Tweedy’s Secretariat.
You know those nights where you just want to relax in a
comfortable chair and watch a movie?
Last night was one of those interminable rainy day movie nights with Secretariat starring Diane Lane and John
Malkovich. As I settled in to the
first few minutes of the movie with only the expectation of some acceptable entertainment,
I soon found myself for the next two hours hovering just above the surface of
weeping.
Now, I’m not the kind of person who cries over a horse, but
this dramatization of a horse and his owner-trainer-handler-jockey team, who
never harbored the idea of losing, struck a chord inside me that resonated
much deeper than one more horse tale. The
actual horse, Big Red, whose “stage name” was Secretariat, set a new world
record at the Belmont Stakes, winning with a 31-length gap. As Charles Hatton of The Daily Racing Form described the horse, “His only point of
reference is himself.”
I suppose words like dauntlessness, pluck, perseverance,
stoutheartedness, and endurance all come to mind, but I’m really not talking
about horse racing here, which is no doubt the source of the attack to the seat
of my emotions. If we were to admit it, all of us want to experience surpassing our own point of reference by 31
lengths.
When we don’t get that second chance, when we feel we might
as well give up, when what we want could only be a long shot, when our competition
is close on our heels and breathing down our necks and we wonder if the struggle is worth the attempt—and
then we actually win, was it because we got lucky, or was it that we went the distance and just didn’t quit?
One of my favorite movies is a story of redemption, The Holiday, with Cameron Diaz, Kate
Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black. No,
it’s not about a horse, but it is about the same theme. In one scene, Arthur tells Iris, “In the
movies there’s the best friend and then there’s the leading lady. You’re behaving like the best friend.” To which Iris replies, “You should be the
leading lady of your own life…That was brilliant, Arthur….brilliant but brutal.”
Secretariat’s point of reference made him the star of his
own life, a position that we covet but don’t always know how to
procure for ourselves. I don’t have the answer, but I do know this: When you want something and you believe it’s
within the realm of possibility, and you go for it and never give up, then, as
Paolo Coelho says, all the universe comes together to help you obtain it.
For my friends attending the Derby this weekend, don't forget your hat!
