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Riva Ridge

Riva Ridge
Sire First Landing
Grandsire Turn-To
Dam Iberia
Damsire Heliopolis
Sex Stallion
Foaled 1969
Country United States
Colour Bay
Breeder Meadow Stud, Inc.
Owner Meadow Stable
Trainer Lucien Laurin
Record 30:17-3-1
Earnings $1,111,347
Major wins

Champagne Stakes (1971)
Futurity Stakes (1971)
Laurel Futurity (1971)
Flash Stakes (1971)
Garden State Futurity (1971)
Blue Grass Stakes (1972)
Hollywood Derby (1972)
Brooklyn Handicap (1973)
Massachusetts Handicap (1973)
Stuyvesant Handicap (1973)

Triple Crown race wins:
Kentucky Derby (1972)
Belmont Stakes (1972)
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
Last updated on January 24, 2008

Champagne Stakes (1971)
Futurity Stakes (1971)
Laurel Futurity (1971)
Flash Stakes (1971)
Garden State Futurity (1971)
Blue Grass Stakes (1972)
Hollywood Derby (1972)
Brooklyn Handicap (1973)
Massachusetts Handicap (1973)
Stuyvesant Handicap (1973)

Riva Ridge (April 13, 1969 – April 21, 1985) was a Thoroughbred racehorse, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in 1972.

A son of First Landing out of Iberia (by Heliopolis), he was owned and bred by the Meadow Stable of Christopher Chenery. Secretariat, the Triple Crown champion in 1973, was owned and bred by the same stable.

Riva Ridge's name came from Chenery's son-in-law, John Tweedy, who was a soldier in World War II at the important strategic victory by the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division in 1945 at Riva Ridge on February 18 in the North Apennine mountains of Italy.

A winner of the Eclipse Award at age two and four, Riva Ridge was ridden mainly by Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, who rode stablemate Secretariat a year later. After his win as the 9:5 favorite at the Kentucky Derby, many expected Riva Ridge to win the elusive Triple Crown. Although a 1:5 odds-on favorite at Pimlico in Baltimore, the Preakness was his first race in wet conditions and he finished fourth, after rain made the going sloppy. In the 1½-mile (2.4 km) Belmont Stakes, Riva Ridge defeated nine other horses with a seven-length victory.


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