Riva Ridge

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Riva Ridge
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Sire:	First Landing
Dam:	Iberia
Damsire:	Heliopolis
Sex:	Stallion
Foaled:	1969
Country:	USA
Colour:	Bay
Breeder:	Meadow Stud, Inc.
Owner:	Meadow Stable
Trainer:	Lucien Laurin
Record:	30:17-3-1
Earnings:	$1,111,347
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
Champagne Stakes (1971) Futurity Stakes (1971) Laurel Futurity (1971) Blue Grass Stakes (1972) Kentucky Derby (1972) Belmont Stakes (1972) Hollywood Derby (1972) Brooklyn Handicap (1973) Massachusetts Handicap (1973) Stuyvesant Handicap (1973)
Racing Awards
U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old (1971) U.S. Champion Older Horse (1973)
Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1998) #57 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century Riva Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park
Infobox last updated on: September 17, 2006.

Riva Ridge (1969-1985) was a American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse owned and bred by Christopher Chenery, who, before passing away in January of 1973, witnessed the colt's outstanding two-and-three-year-old racing campaigns. A soldier in World War I, Chenery named the horse in honor of the important strategic victory by the United States Army's 10th Mountain Division on February 18, 1945 at Riva Ridge. Riva Ridge is found in the North Apennine mountains of Italy.

A two-time Eclipse Award winner, Riva Ridge was ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte. The horse never ran well on muddy tracks and as a result, after winning the Kentucky Derby, missed out winning the U.S. Triple Crown when he was upset in the Preakness Stakes after rain caused a sloppy track. In the Belmont Stakes, the 1½ mile race that is usually the race to end Triple Crown dreams, Riva Ridge beat nine other horses, running away to a seven length victory.

At age four, Riva Ridge won five of the nine races he entered, set track records four times, and equalled the 1 1/8 mile track record at Suffolk Downs in winning the Massachusetts Handicap. Of the four races Riva Ridge lost in 1973, three were on muddy tracks and one on soft grass. With much fanfare the Philip Morris company who manufactured the best-selling Marlboro cigarette brand, sponsored what at first was to be a match race with stable mate Secretariat. It was changed to an invitational race that brought together the top horses 3 years of age and up. In world record time, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte won. Riva Ridge, who was ridden by the very capable Eddie Maple, took second.

Riva Ridge was retired at the end of the 1973 racing season. He stood at stud at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky for his entire breeding career until he died of a heart attack on April 21, 1985. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998.

In thirty starts, he won 17, placed in three, and came in third in one. His life earnings amounted to $1,111,497.