The Virginia property where 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat was born has been sold at a foreclosure auction for nearly $5.35 million.
Mark Motley of Motley's Auction Realty Group said the State Fair of Virginia's real estate, including the 360-acre Meadow Event Park site where Secretariat was foaled in 1970, was purchased May 22 by Mark Lovell of the Cordova, Tenn.-based Universal Fairs.
The site nearn Doswell, north of Richmond, includes Secretariat's preserved foaling shed and yearling barn.
Secretariat, Horse of the Year as a 2-year-old in 1972, swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes (all gr. I) the following year becoming the first Thoroughbred to win the Triple Crown since Citation in 1948. Meadow Stable's Secretariat died in 1989 at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky.
The State Fair of Virginia acquired the Meadow Farm property in 2003 for $5.3 million and moved the annual fair from Richmond, where it had been held since 1854. The non-profit defaulted on about $80 million in financing from creditors and was forced to liquidate, casting uncertainty on this year's event.
