A truly inspired idea
(Thanks to Virginia Thoroughbred Blog for the tip!)
You’d be hard-pressed to find a historical blindness more humorless or tiresome than the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. And that’s why the petition to erect a monument to Secretariat in Richmond is so inspired.
If you’ve been to Richmond, you know that it’s a city that takes its onetime role as the Capital of the Confederacy seriously. Ground Zero is Monument Avenue, which memorializes Virginia-bred (sorry, couldn’t resist) Confederates Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Jeb Stuart, and Stonewall Jackson, as well as oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury, who was himself a Confederate veteran.
More recently — and more controversially — the city added a statue memorializing tennis star and Richmond native Arthur Ashe.
Now comes the proposal to commemorate the successes of another Virginia-bred, the “tremendous machine” named Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Triple Crown.
Erecting a statue to Secretariat is a good idea.
Putting it on the otherwise oh-so-serious Monument Avenue is a better one.
But it’s the petition itself that moves this proposal into “truly inspired” territory. For one thing, the petition suggests placing the Secretariat “monument” between Lee and Davis memorials. That would give us the following sequence: Revered leader of the Confederate armies-racehorse-President of the Confederacy.
Good stuff. But it gets even better.
The petition goes on to suggest that a Secretariat statue would actually upgrade the avenue. How so? Because, the author suggests, it’s time “to remember winners instead of traitorous losers.”
He wouldn’t be the first horse on the avenue. Lee, Jackson, and Stuart are all portrayed as mounted. So Secretariat wouldn’t be lonely. However, there is, according to the petition, one critical difference: “[W]hen someone was riding Secretariat, that person was a winner.”
Anyone could have come up with the idea of a Secretariat statue at Colonial Downs. It takes real inspiration to propose placing it amidst the ghosts of the rebellion.
The “Lost Cause” mythologists have to be rolling over in their graves. Which isn’t such a bad thing.
Reader Comments
It would be fitting if they included his long time groom Eddie Sweat, a black man, in the scene.
Great stuff Frank, Big Red and the Rebels, sounds like a reason to visit Richmond.
I don’t necessarily agree with that, to lump the greatest racehorse that ever lived in with the likes of Lee, Jackson and especially old Jeff Davis.
I’m afraid most people will not see the irony and think that Secretariat was Lee’s mount and died defending the “cause”.
However, it verges on criminal that there is no honor to Secretariat at his place of birth, the Meadow in Caroline County.
Your welcome about the tip. Enjoyed your thoughts. We (VaTBBlog) have also received some interesting input on this. After further consideration, VA needs at least three statues of Big Red — one at the Meadow, one at Colonial Downs and one somewhere in Richmond.
Thanks for weighing in, folks.
Good thought re: Eddie Sweat, Bill.
There ya go, John!
Not sure about three Secretariat statues, Glenn — he might catch up to RE Lee soon!