Contrary to what was depicted in the movie “Rudy,” Notre Dame coach Dan Devine was not opposed to practice player Daniel Ruettiger appearing in a game. He was the one who came up with the idea.
And the movie “Secretariat” was completely wrong about who actually saved Meadow Stable and its racing operation from financial ruin. It wasn’t Big Red.
It was Riva Ridge.
“Riva Ridge came about at a time when the stable’s fortunes were low,” Meadow Stable owner Penny Chenery said in 2012. Thoroughbred times story (Chenery died in 2017). “My father [Christopher T. Chenery] was ill and my brother and sister wanted to sell the farm. They told me I was the only one who enjoyed the horses, so they wanted to sell the farm and put the money into things they enjoyed. But I resisted and told them I wouldn’t sell the horses while Dad was still alive. Then Riva Ridge came along and became champion [in 1971] and everything changed. They stopped pushing me to sell.
“Later so much attention was paid to the coin toss that it gave us the Secretariat, but without Riva Ridge the Secretariat would have gone to someone else and who knows how history would have turned out? The world would have been denied one of its greatest racehorses.”
Not to mention a movie that conveniently ignored a horse that deserved at least a supporting role in it.
“I was disappointed in the movie because there were things in it that just weren’t true to life,” Chenery said. “But I said to myself, ‘That’s Hollywood.’ They couldn’t have two heroes. ”
The non-existent role of Riva Ridge in the film ‘Secretariat’ in some ways reflected his career. He raced in the 1970s, which was as rich in horse talent as any ten-year period in the sport’s history, and he was one of the biggest stars of that decade. He was brilliant enough to win 17 of 30 starts, including two legs of the Triple Crown, while becoming racing’s 12th millionaire and earning a spot in the Racing Hall of Fame.
He may have been pushed into the background by Secretariat, like every other horse of that era, but for those around him, especially Penny Chenery, there was nothing but admiration for Meadow Stable’s ‘other’ champion of the 1970s.
“I’ve ridden some great ones like Tom Rolfe, Damascus and Northern Dancer, and he was as good as any of them,” said Secretariat and Riva Ridge regular rider Ron Turcotte in the Thoroughbred times story.
But despite those impeccable credentials, he is remembered by many as Secretariat’s stablemate.
The best example of this was the first Marlboro Cup in 1973, a race created as a showcase for Secretariat. On that day, Riva Ridge ran strong enough to beat every horse in the world except one. At the finish it was Secretariat who prevailed by 3 ½ lengths in world record time over Riva Ridge with five of the sport’s best horses in training.
“Riva Ridge has trained spectacularly for it [the Marlboro Cup] and he ran fast enough to set a world record. Yet he still lost,” said Eddie Maple, who rode Riva Ridge instead of Turcotte in that $250,000 race. Thoroughbred times. “That tells a whole story. Unfortunately, no one remembers who came second in a major race.”
Riva Ridge, a homebred son of First Landing, finished first far more often than second in his three years on the track.
His debut on June 9, 1971 at Belmont Park was one of the few clunkers of his illustrious career. Sent off with a 2-1 lead for trainer Lucien Laurin, he was bumped at the start of the race and never dismissed. He finished seventh and was defeated by 16 lengths under jockey Chuck Baltazar.
With added blinders, Riva Ridge rebounded with easy first and allowed wins, but was then disappointed as a 1.30-to-1 favorite in his stakes debut, the Great American, when he ran into traffic early in the race and dropped to eighth behind Chevron Flight.
Turcotte was next brought in to ride Riva Ridge in the Flash Stakes at Saratoga. Riva Ridge tried to break away at the start, but Turcotte led him to the rail and recorded a 2.5 length victory.
After the win, Turcotte told Laurin that Riva Ridge was concerned about working in tight company and that needed to be resolved to bring out the best in the young, talented colt.
“The next day [after the Flash]I went to Lucien’s barn and told him that Riva Ridge had the potential to be the best two-year-old I have ever ridden. He just laughed,” Turcotte said. “But for that to happen, I said I wanted to work with him for a month and teach him how to handle running next to other horses. Lucien wanted nothing to do with that. He said he already had other races planned for him at Saratoga and had no intention of skipping this one. Then I said to him: ‘Lucien, you can have a champion or a claimer. It’s your decision.’ It was rude, but he thought about it a bit and gave me a month to work with him.
Turcotte then took Riva Ridge to school and worked him with two of Laurin’s other horses, ridden by Charlie Davis and Tommy Feliciano.
“You can look at a book by its cover, but you can’t really look inside it,” Davis said Thoroughbred times. “We opened the book in August that was Riva Ridge. The progress that horse made was so impressive and it gave us all so much satisfaction. He was still running with his heart and soul, but he learned to relax a bit.”
The hours spent teaching Riva Ridge to relax were rewarded with consecutive wins in the Belmont Futurity, Champagne, Pimlico-Laurel Futurity and Garden State Stakes, crowning Riva Ridge the 1971 2-Year-Old Male Champion.
Riva Ridge, the winter books favorite for the Kentucky Derby, won the Hibiscus Stakes at Hialeah Park in his three-year-old debut but then failed to fire on a sloppy track in the Everglades Stakes and finished fourth.
Riva Ridge made up for that setback with a decisive four-length victory in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and was sent off as a 3-2 favorite in the Kentucky Derby.
He won the Derby by 3 ¼ lengths, which would give Meadow Stable its first consecutive victories in the battle of the roses.
“When Riva Ridge won the Derby, I was so excited,” Chenery said. “My father was still alive [he died in January 1973] and I had fulfilled his dreams and greatest desire in racing by winning the Derby. I will always thank Riva Ridge for that.”
As the Triple Crown moved to Pimlico for the Preakness, storm clouds followed, creating a sloppy track for the middle jewel of the series. In his career, six of Riva Ridge’s thirteen losses occurred on a wet track or turf.
“That rain made me sick,” Turcotte said. “I was hoping they would scratch it and run Upper Case (who won the Wood Memorial in the mud), but they said they would regret it for the rest of their lives if Riva ran second behind Upper Case. They scratched Upper Case, but I knew Riva Ridge couldn’t handle that mud.”
Turcotte’s instincts were right when Riva Ridge, a heavy 3-10 favorite, finished fourth behind longshot Bee Bee Bee.
“He just wasn’t supposed to win the Triple Crown,” Chenery said.
Back on a dry track, Riva rode Ridge to a seven-length victory in the Belmont Stakes and then won by a neck in the Hollywood Derby.
His win at Hollywood Park turned out to be Riva Ridge’s last victory of 1972 and five consecutive losses, including two in which he finished behind Key to the Mint, opened the door for Key to the Mint to be named the Champion of the Year, 3-Year-Old Male.
As upset as the Meadow Stable team was at Riva Ridge’s criticism of the Eclipse Award voters, they took great comfort in the fact that Secretariat was named 1972 Horse of the Year as a two-year-old.
In 1973, Riva Ridge won the Massachusetts Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap and Stuyvesant Handicap and was named champion handicap runner of the year, but his achievements were glossed over in a year that belonged solely to Secretariat and Secretariat.
Riva Ridge’s career ended on a disappointing note when he finished last in the 1973 Jockey Club Gold Cup and then both he and Secretariat headed to life as studs at Claiborne Farm.
“When I saw the groom from Claiborne lead them down the driveway of the van and put their shaft on it, it hit me so hard,” Chenery said. “I knew this was the end. A reporter tried to ask me a question, but I couldn’t talk. I was so choked up I just walked away.”
Chenery said she spent the next 45 minutes walking around the farm alone, thoughts of the past two years swirling in her mind and all her emotions draining away.
“Eventually I calmed myself down and went back,” Chenery said. “I wanted to be alone, but I felt a sense of loyalty to the game. I knew I couldn’t just go into the corner and cry like a little schoolgirl.”
Chenery often visited both of her horses in Claiborne, and as the years passed, her bond with Riva Ridge became even more special.
“As time went on, I called the secretary, but he wouldn’t answer me,” Chenery said. ‘I was just one of a hundred people who shouted his name every day, until his death [in 1985]Riva Ridge perked up when he heard me calling him. Therefore, when I speak of the two horses, I say that Secretariat belonged to the people and that Riva Ridge belonged to me. The Secretariat had millions of people who cared about him. He didn’t need me. But Riva Ridge only had me. He was my hero and I knew I meant something to him.”
A hero, indeed. After all, it was Riva Ridge that saved the legendary Meadow Stable.
Note: This story was originally published in December 2015 and has been updated.
Fun facts
- Riva Ridge was syndicated for $5.1 million. A year earlier, Secretariat was syndicated for a world record $6.08 million.
- Riva Ridge was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1998.
- In the 1971 Garden State Stakes, Riva Ridge defeated Numbered Account, the 1971 champion 2-year-old filly, and Key to the Mint, who would become his archrival at age 3.
- On September 20, 1972, the $28,000 Stymie Handicap at Belmont Park featured the last two winners of the Kentucky Derby. Riva Ridge gave 13 pounds to Canonero II to finish second behind the 1971 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner by five lengths. The victorious Canonero set a track record of 1:46 1/5 for the mile and an eighth in the Stymie. Secretariat later shattered that goal with his time of 1:45 2/5 in the Marlboro Cup.
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