New, interactive exhibit to bring Secretariat’s legacy to life at Kentucky Derby Museum

By Madeline Carter

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    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — A new, interactive exhibit will soon bring Secretariat’s legacy to life at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

Construction is underway for the display titled “Secretariat: America’s Horse,” set to feature new artifacts and unique technology to tell the story of the champion racehorse that made history.

“We strive to make every exhibit interactive, and this one’s gonna be one of the greatest things in the museum,” Derby Museum president and CEO Patrick Armstrong told WLKY.

According to Armstrong, the state-of-the-art exhibit is designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s historic Kentucky Derby win and Triple Crown sweep in 1973.

Crews are hard at work building the exhibit after a year and a half of planning.

“It’s always exciting to watch an exhibit come together,” said Chris Goodlett, senior director of curatorial and educational affairs at the museum. “You come up with an idea, you come up with some concepts, but we’re at that part now where we’re it’s starting to become a reality. We can look at the construction out there and see the physical space starting to become what we envisioned.”

Once complete, Goodlett said the 1,000-square-foot display will be a permanent fixture at the museum.

“We feel his [Secretariat’s] story, his legacy, his importance to thoroughbred racing in the Kentucky Derby merits that attention,” Goodlett said.

The ultimate goal is to create an immersive experience for visitors that showcases how America’s racehorse became a household name.

“Secretariat is one of our most popular requests when people come to the museum, and we entertain about 200,000 people a year,” Armstrong said. “They [visitors] always want to know about Secretariat. So I think this is going to be a very popular exhibit for many years to come.”

The exhibit is set to open in April as an official kickoff to the excitement of Derby season.

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