Page 76 - The Hunt - Spring 2024

About the Races continued from page 38
pack their picnics, put on their best hats
and race outfits, and enjoy the fun of the tailgate, hat and best-dressed competitions. As a special perk this year, on Mother’s Day only, you can present your Willowdale ticket at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and receive the discounted group rate.
The options are many for anyone looking to enjoy the races, whether it’s general admission, tailgate parking or Private Party Paddocks.
The Willowdale Steeplechase is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Kennett Square. Their mission is to raise funds
for the Stroud Water Research Center. Their donation assists in the center’s work to support and sustain life on the planet through clean water research.
THE BENEFICIARIES
Seventy-five years ago, Dr. Ruth Patrick, an intrepid researcher and original #girlboss, published a study that changed how our natural resources are protected. A trailblazer in the world of freshwater science, she explored the Conestoga River to understand how clean rivers work and how polluted rivers can recover.
With Dick and Joan Stroud, Patrick established Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pennsylvania,
in 1967. Fast forward to today, and her legacy is thriving through the interdisciplinary, large-scale and innovative science conducted on freshwater systems by the team of researchers and professionals at the Stroud Center.
From specimen-collecting trips into the woods to her pioneering work with diatoms (a type of single-celled algae), Patrick has always had innate curiosity and drive. She graduated from college in 1929, earning her master’s and doctorate degrees from
the University of Virginia. She completed her PhD in 1934, when only 15% of PhDs were awarded to women.
From 1933 to 1940, Patrick worked
as a volunteer and an unpaid researcher
at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, as they would not permit women on their payroll. Despite obvious obstacles, she became a leading expert in the world of algal research. When the U.S. Navy captured a German submarine, she helped identify the location of the
formerly undiscovered submarine base
in the West Indies by identifying the algal samples collected from the sub.
In Pennsylvania, Patrick established practices that are still used to monitor and restore freshwater streams and rivers. Known as the Patrick Principle, inventories of a range of local properties and inhabitants are used to determine stream health. Patrick and her team provided data from the Conestoga River to show how lower pollution levels resulted in a higher diversity of stream organisms. Monitoring the biodiversity of aquatic life over time is now a fundamental practice for environmental management.
A force until the end, Patrick commuted to Avondale’s Stroud Center from Philadelphia at 100 years of age, asking any scientist she met in the hall, “What have you learned today?” She was actively engaged with the research team at the Stroud Center until 2013, when she passed away at age 105.
Her legacy lives on through the research and work at the Stroud Center, where scientists continue to use a wide range of expertise to explore fundamental questions of how streams change over time.
Visit stroudcenter.org/restoration.
Dr. Ruth Patrick at work.
energy, a sweetness and a strength. Clinically known as Wry nose, her facial deviation made it difficult for her to nurse no matter how many times she tried. But she kept trying. With one nostril completely closed, she struggled to breathe but still found it within herself to nuzzle her dam, Coco, and cheerfully greet the humans who’d assisted in her birth.
Still, it was clear the filly couldn’t live
a comfortable life without major medical intervention. And even if that went well,
it was extremely unlikely that she’d be able live up to her potential as an equine athlete.
But that didn’t matter to her owner, Matt Morrison of Morrison Racing. He didn’t want to euthanize the filly—and
his teenage daughter agreed. “There was
a fight in her,” Morrison says. “She didn’t know she was abnormal. She just knew she needed to feed and was persistent. Without that fighting spirit, she probably wouldn’t have survived that first weekend.”
The Morrisons gave the filly a nickname: Wry Not. Armed with her steely tenacity, she was sent to the large animal hospital
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s (Penn Vet) New Bolton Center, where a multidisciplinary team of clinical specialists were prepping to give her a shot at a long, healthy life.
Wry nose isn’t common. The New Bolton Center’s Dr. Kyla Ortved and
Dr. Jose Garcia-Lopez continued on page 42
40 STEEPLECHASE LOOKBOOK 2024 | todaymediainc.com
quite special about Coco Chanel F
rom the beginning, there was something
23—and it wasn’t just that the filly was born with a 45-degree twist to her muzzle. The Standardbred newborn had a vibrant
COURTESY OF STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER