LOUSIVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There are images that come to mind when we talk about one of the best to ever hit the dirt at Churchill Downs.
There's the picture of the record-breaker crossing the finish line and the champ with a garland of roses. Marilyn Potts thinks of a different picture of Secretariat.
"He is just being a horse, just enjoying a treat," said Ruth Devore, Potts' daughter.
That treat was a mint perched on Potts' lips.
"I have worshipped that picture for 50 years," she said.
Potts was the first female security guard ever tasked with protecting a race horse.
"I was a lieutenant," Potts said. "They asked me why I closed my eyes, and I said I was OK with that there horse taking that mint off my lip. But I didn't want to see him take my lip off."
The thoroughbred was gentle, and it's a good thing, because "Marilyn with the fresh breath" needed those lips to tell the story for decades to come.
"She talked about it every year at Derby, so even if you didn't remember, you'd remember it once a year," Devore said.
"That there is the proudest moment I've had," Potts said.
Now, the story will go far beyond halls of her New Albany, Indiana, assisted living facility. The picture will be among the artifacts, silks and documentary footage on display at the Kentucky Derby Museum.
"I feel very honored by doing that," Potts said.
Her life took turn after turn after the picture was snapped, and Potts outran Secretariat.
"In six more weeks, I'll be 92," Potts said.
She and her family know every "race" reaches a finish line, and they're happy this silly, sweet picture next to a legend will have a permanent place in more than their hearts.
"That to me kind of sums my mother and her life," Devore said. "She's always lived it to the fullest, enjoyed every day, always a smile on her face."
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