Maymont is home to otters, and chickens, and bears — oh my! In the past week, Maymont has welcomed a new horse, Lorna. Out of the hundreds of animals that have found a home in the beloved Richmond park, the historic site has welcomed an heir to a Virginia legacy.
Lorna is a descendant of the famous racehorse Secretariat. Also known as “Big Red,” the champion thoroughbred horse was the ninth winner of the American Triple Crown and still holds the fastest time recorded in each of those races. The fastest racehorse in history is also a Virginian, born and raised in Caroline County.
Lorna stands in her pasture on Friday. “Maymont is happy to give her a new forever home,” said Parke Richeson, president and CEO of Maymont Foundation.
“I think that was Secretariat’s secret,” said Melissa Abernathy, the communications manager at Maymont. “He was a Bold Ruler son. And Bold Ruler was like the distance horse of all distance horses. So if you had Bold Ruler in a horse’s pedigree, they were going to stand a good chance of doing well in the Belmont Stakes.
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“And then you have horses that are great at sprinting. And he had one of those on his dam’s side. So I think the breeders look for that combination of physical traits.”
Emma Temples leads Lorna at Maymont on Friday. The park was able to adopt Lorna through the Equine Welfare Society, which had taken her in after her brief career as a racehorse.
Maymont, at 1700 Hampton St. in Richmond, started as a private estate before being donated to the city. The 100-acre park is celebrating 100 years as a public space in 2025. Animals were added to the site in the 1940s.
Lorna arrived at the Maymont farm in October. The 13-year-old bright chestnut mare shares the same coat as her ancestor, and stands at a staggering 5 feet 4 inches from ground to shoulder blades.
Lorna’s pedigree is not just impressive because of Secretariat. Abernathy said in a statement that the mare also has other notable Kentucky Derby winners like Northern Dancer and Swaps in her lineage. Alongside her copper coat, she shares a white star marking between her eyes that resembles the mark of another relative, the famous Alydar.
Maymont was able to adopt Lorna through the Equine Welfare Society, which had taken in Lorna after her brief career as a racehorse. Lorna raced under the name “Count My Blessings” until she was retired and placed with EWS. Once she retired, she spent some time as a broodmare in the hopes of producing even more horses with an impressive pedigree.
The sun shines in Lorna’s eyes at Maymont on Friday. “She’s absolutely gorgeous,” said Joe Meel, the park’s senior manager of zoology.
“Lorna seems to enjoy her new surroundings and her new companions. She is a natural at posing for photographs and seems to know when cameras are pointed in her direction,” said Parke Richeson, president and CEO of Maymont Foundation. “Maymont is happy to give her a new forever home.”
Lorna now has two roommates that share her stable, Dani, 29, and Artie, 18.
Joe Meel is the senior manager of zoology at Maymont. He says the park was fortunate with the introduction period between the horses and that as herd animals, it was not difficult getting Dani and Artie to get along with Lorna.
Lorna, a 13-year-old bright chestnut mare, eats grass at Maymont on Friday.
Meel says EWS was helpful in describing Lorna’s disposition, telling Maymont that Lorna was no Alpha and was just happy to go along with the herd. Meel says there was no aggression between the horses, just a lot of sniffing and running around together.
Meel says Lorna needed to find a forever home that would let her “just be pretty,” and that’s exactly what Maymont wanted her there for. He also says Lorna can help the park with educating the public about horses and other animals.
“I would be lying if I said that her looks had nothing to do with her being picked out,” Meel said. “She’s absolutely gorgeous. You know, as I mentioned earlier, that maybe had little to do with us picking her, but really it was her personality, her disposition, her health condition, and she was just a great fit for here at Maymont that we wanted to give her a forever home.”
Emma Temples holds on to Lorna’s reins at Maymont in Richmond on Friday. Lorna is a descendant of the famous racehorse Secretariat.
As for community response, Abernathy and Meel say Lorna will do great things for park visitors. They say that if anyone is interested in supporting the animals that live on the grounds, they can participate in the “Adopt an Animal” program. Meel says the program is a great way to get people more familiar with individual animals. There are park memberships available as well.
“You don’t have to be a horse person to look at her and to really appreciate how gorgeous she is,” Meel said. “Not that Dani and Artie aren’t beautiful themselves, but she’s very striking.”
Joe Meel, Maymont’s senior manager of zoology, leads Lorna on Friday. “Lorna seems to enjoy her new surroundings and her new companions,” said Parke Richeson, president and CEO of Maymont Foundation.
PHOTOS: Celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown
With his sights set for victory in the June 9 Belmont Stakes to capture the Triple Crown, Secretariat works out with an exercise rider in the shed row at Belmont Park, New York, May 23, 1973. The horse loosened up indoors to avoid rainy weather. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
Secretariat and jockey Ron Turcotte leave other racers in the dust at the 1973 Belmont Stakes.
FILE — Jockey Ron Turcotte poses aboard Secretariat in the winners circle at Churchill Downs after winning the Kentucky Derby in 1973. (AP Photo/HO)
“The track is very much of a man’s world,” says Penny Chenery, at her Laurel Hollow, New York, May 23, 1973. But Ms. Chenery, owner of Secretariat, adds: “I feel very comfortable there.” She stresses however: “I don’t want to be one of the boys, I want to be treated like a lady.” The trophy is Secretariat’s 1972 Horse of the Year award. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
Jockey Ron Turcotte pilots Secretariat (leading, #4) over the finish line at Aqueduct in New York, March 17, 1973 to win the $27,750 Bay Shore stakes in his debut as a three-year-old. The 1972 Horse of the Year, got under the wire 4½ lengths ahead of Champagne Charlie, with Michael Venezia up, second from left, with a time of 1:23 1/5. Venezia’s mount was two and a half lengths ahead of Impecunious, right, ridden by James Moseley. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
Race horses Secretariat and Riva Ridge in their barn at Belmont racetrack, New York, Sept. 17, 1973, after a workout. Guard, maintained on a 24-hour basis to protect the fabulous pair, is seen in foreground feeding Secretariat. (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff)
Groom Clay Arnold stands with the 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, May 7, 1975 after giving him hiss daily bath. Old super horse has sired 27 foals since retiring to Claiborne farm in eastern Kentucky and his first offspring will be ready for the track in 1977. (AP Photo)
Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown of racing in 1973, relaxes at the Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky, May 2, 1974 with his groom, Edward Fields. Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness in 1973. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty)
FILE – This June 9, 1973, file photo shows Penny Chenery, owner of Secretariat, reacting after her horse won the Belmont Stakes, and the Triple Crown, at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. Chenery, who bred and raced 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat as well as realizing her disabled father’s dream to win the Kentucky Derby in 1972 with Riva Ridge.
FILE – In this April 29, 2010, file photo, Secretariat owner Penny Chenery appears at a news conference about the movie based on the story of the legendary horse, in Louisville, Ky. Chenery, who bred and raced 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat as well as realizing her disabled father’s dream to win the Kentucky Derby in 1972 with Riva Ridge, died Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, at her Boulder, Colo. home following complications from a stroke.
FILE- This June 9, 1973, file photo, shows Penny Chenery, right, as she receives the August Belmont Memorial Cup from New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller in the Belmont Park Winner’s Circle, after her horse, Secretariat, won the Belmont Stakes by an astounding 31 lengths. Watching are jockey Ron Turcotte, second from left and Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton.
Two of Secretariat’s great granddaughters, Twinkie and Clever (right) walk in a pen in front of Secretariat’s yearling stall where the 1973 triple crown winner stayed in his time at Meadow Farm, now home to the State Fair of Virginia in Doswell on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014.
Groundshaker, a great-great granddaughter of Secretariat, at Meadow Event Park in Doswell VA Wed. March 23, 2016.
Ron Turcotte rides Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes on June 9, 1973. Secretariat won the race by 31 lengths and captured the Triple Crown. (AP Photo)
Owner Penny Chenery shown with Secretariat in a family photo.
Nabil Elhilali from Malage, Spain, stopped by to see a Secretariat display at Main Street Station, which features the second largest horseshoe in the world along with other items from Meadow Farm, the land now occupied by Meadow Event Park in Caroline County.
Kate Tweedy, daughter of Penny Chenery who operated The Meadow horse farm in Caroline County when Secretariat was born.
Curry Roberts, president of State Fair of Va. stands outside the stables that once housed the great Secretariat.
In this publicity image released by Disney, from second left, Diane Lane, Nelsan Ellis, Otto Thorwarth, and John Malkovich are shown in a scene from, “Secretariat.” (AP Photo/Disney, John Bramley)
FILE – In this May 9, 1973 file photo, Secretariat, Ron Turcotte up, wins the 98th Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Secretariat’s owner has asked the Maryland Racing Commission to conduct a hearing about changing the time of the horse’s winning run in the 1973 Preakness Stakes. Penny Chenery, along with Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas, say advances in modern video technology will prove Secretariat ran the 1 3/16 mile race in 1 minute, 53 and 2/5 seconds. That would have been a record at the time and would match the standing record for the Preakness.
Penny Chenery, L, signed autographs for admirers during the 40th Anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown win in 1973. The event was held at Meadow Farm.
Ann Carter of Sandston shakes hands with racing hall of fame jockey Ron Turcotte during Secretariat celebrations at Meadow Farm.
Richmond Police Department’s Mounted Division officers Amanda Bass, L, and Dawn Lehmann escorted the Percheron team driven by Goochland’s Dr. Tom Newton and pulling a carriage bringing Penny Chenery and her daughter Kate Chenery Tweedy to celebrations for Secretariat’s 40th anniversary of Triple Crown victories in 1973.
FILE — Jockey Ron Turcotte poses aboard Secretariat in the winners circle at Churchill Downs after winning the Kentucky Derby in 1973. (AP Photo/HO)
Secretariat, the record-breaking winner of the Kentucky Derby, is greeted in his stall at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, by exercise attendant George Davis and Penny Chenery in May 1973.
Secretariat shown winning the final leg of racing’s 1973 Triple Crown at Belmont Park in New York.
Meadow Farm, where Secretariat was born, photographed Tuesday, June 2, 1998.
Horses on Meadow Farm, where Secretariat was born, photographed Tuesday, June 2, 1998.
Ross Sternheimer, owner of Meadow Farm, stands at the door to Secretariat’s stall. Photo taken Tuesday, June 2, 1998.
Triple Crown winner Secretariat gallops during a workout with exercise jockey George Davis in saddle at Arlington Park race track in Arlington Heights, Ill., Friday morning, June 29, 1973. (AP Photo)
Ron Turcotte rides Secretariat to win the Belmont Stakes and capture the Triple Crown in this June 9, 1973 photo. Secretariat set a world record for a one and a half mile course in 2:24, and a record for largest margin of victory in the Belmont, 31 lengths.(AP Photo)
Jockey Ron Turcotte, aboard Secretariat, looks at the field many lengths behind in the final turn on his way to winning the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown on June 9, 1973.
FILE – In this June 9, 2012 file photo, retired jockey Ron Turcotte, left, who rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973, poses for photos with Kenny Foudy, 5, next to a statue of the race horse prior to the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.
Secretariat, the 1972 Horse of the Year, cools off in New York on March 17, 1973, after winning the seven furlong Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct by four and a half lengths in his debut as a 3-year-old. “He’s just like he was, good,” said jockey Ron Turcotte (checked shirt) after Secretariat’s explosive stretch run that took him to victory over Champagne Charlie. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
