Original Chenery Family 1973 Marlboro Cup Race-Day Track Program
This is the original Chenery family 1973 Marlboro Cup race-day track program with handwritten notations. Held at Belmont Park, th race was one of the first events that launched the concept of corporate sponsorship of sports, and was originally conceived as a Meadow Stable match race between the new anointed Triple Crown winner Secretariat and his elder champion stablemate Riva Ridge. When the Marlboro cigarette company and the New York Racing Association decided to enlarge the concept and the competition, the contest was expanded into an invitational race that attracted the best horses in training at the time, including Cougar II, the 1972 champion older horse and winner of the 1973 Santa Anita Handicap; Kennedy Road, America's top grass horse and future turf champion; Onion, the unlikely conqueror of Secretariat in their previous meeting in the Whitney Stakes; Key to the Mint, the reigning 3-year-old champion; and Annihilate 'Em, the impressive winner of the Travers Stakes a month earlier.
The Meadow Stable connections of Penny Chenery, brother Hollis Chenery and sister Margaret Chenery Carmichael attending the race could not have been prouder with its result, as Secretariat’s electrifying victory over a very game Riva Ridge that established a new world record for the 1 1/8 mile distance. This particular program is one of only two actual race-day programs that the family saved for posterity, and the only one to feature the handwritten 1-2-3-4 finish order markings, but more important, the inscription of "1:45.2 world record” denoting the official time of the historic race. Overall the program, displaying Secretariat and the familiar red and white Marlboro brand graphics on its cover, is in excellent condition while showing typical race-day use. As an added bonus, the undercard races featured future three-time Horse of the Year Forego in the Solicitor Stakes and the great racing mares Susan's Girl, Summer Guest, and Desert Vixen squaring off in the Beldame Stakes.
