Secretariat

Just finished watching the movie Secretariat.

Wow, did that hit home.

Odd timing too, because today in the mail I received a video cd of us and our horses from the Northeast Equine Expo 2010 held at Belmont Race track. (Thank you Jim and Deirdre O'Malley of Long Island!) There is video footage of Tori riding Oscar on the same track that Secretariat won the last leg of the Triple Crown on!

And as we were watching the bonus features at the end of Secretariat we saw the interview with Jim Gaffney, Secretariats excercise jockey. This is significant because Mr. Gaffney was at the Northeast Equine Expo 2010 in the booth next to us signing autographs and speaking with people about his experiences with Secretariat. (The filming of movie had only recently been finished.)
Mr. Gaffney was on oxygen and in a wheelchair. He told his assistant he was interested in meeting Tori and her Oscar, the other equine star of the Belmont event. At the end of the weekend as we were packing up to leave there was an envelope sitting at our table near Oscars stall with Tori's name on the front. It was an autographed picture of he and Big Red taken back in 1973!

Tori was thrilled to have recieved this, only wishing she had the time to introduce herself before he left. When we got home on Monday, she immediately found his email address and sent him a thank you for the photo. On Tuesday, posted on the Northeast Equine Expo facebook page, we read that Mr. Gaffney had passed away in his home, surrounded by his family. We were saddened. It is possible that the last autograph he ever signed was to Tori and her painted pony.

We were happy to see Mr. Gaffney in his interview in the movie, he was animated and lively, and excited to be talking about the horse that he loved so much. It's a great movie that my whole family could relate to.