07/03/2025
RIVA RIDGE
A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART
The morning of the Kentucky Derby, I asked Mr. Laurin if I could cut the holes in his blinkers larger just in case I had to go to the front. Well, you should have seen the expression on his face.
“Ronnie don’t you think it’s too late at this point to make any changes?” he said.
I responded by saying “Okay,” and I started to fold my pocket knife to put it away, at the same time shaking my head and saying out loud, “I sure would hate to lose a Derby this way.”
Mr. Laurin then said, “Go ahead, if you don’t think it will hurt our chances.”
I thanked him and proceeded to cut a larger opening in the blinker cups, while saying how I felt better just in case we had to go to the lead. I had heard rumors around the track and in the jockeys room that trainer Arnold Winick had bragged about playing our game and instructed jockey Carlos Marquez to take Hold Your Peace back leaving the gate and stay with me and move with me. But I knew something they didn’t know: Riva was an extremely fast horse before I schooled him to relax and come from behind. I also knew he was the best horse in the race and that I could use him as I saw fit. I was very confident because everything was falling into place at the right time. He was feeling so good and had worked so well over the track, which was dry and fast, with no rain expected for that afternoon.
Everything was to his liking and I could smell the roses. As usual, Mr. Laurin’s instructions were, use your own judgment. Well, the race materialized just as I thought. A few yards out of the gate, I saw what was happening: All the other jockeys started taking a strong hold on their horses. That’s when I decide to go on about my business and took the lead. I went on to win my first Derby by 3 1/4 lengths, very easy.
What a relief and what a thrill! I don’t believe there is a bigger thrill in the world for a jockey than winning the Kentucky Derby. Taking the time to school Riva paid off. I believe that I was more proud of his accomplishment than my own. Oh how I loved that horse! Just by looking in his eyes the first time I rode him, I knew he had it and he never let me down! You may laugh at me some, but I never forgot what my dad had told me when I was younger, that you could always tell the intelligence of any animal by the look in their eyes.
Now it was on to the Preakness where we fell victims to a muddy track and finished fourth after slipping and sliding all over the track. He would never feel secure on an off track, or the turf for that matter. The Belmont Stakes, the test of champions, was run on a fast track. He won going away by 7 lengths. If not for the mud at Pimlico, he would have been the first Triple Crown winner in 24 years. It would have been back-to-back Triple Crowns for me the following year when I won aboard Big Red, but it wasn’t meant to be. Then again, the Triple Crown is not meant to be easy; it is only expected to be won by the very exceptional individual who can outrun his generation on all circumstances and all types of track surfaces.
Now it was on to California to win the Hollywood Derby. The track was so hard that day I could feel the jarring throughout my whole body. When we returned to New York and stepped on the track for the first time, I could tell Riva was very muscle sore and the rigors of the hard campaign were catching up to him. We gave him the whole month of July to freshen up. His next race was the Monmouth Invitational at Monmouth Park, and he ran a very dismal race to finish fourth after training exceptionally well at Saratoga. This remains a mystery to me because he was so full of energy the last time I took him to the track at Saratoga before he left for New Jersey. When Mr. Laurin gave me a leg up, Riva never reacted and was so dull in the post parade at Monmouth Park. There was talk that he was drugged that day and I really believe he was. I never said anything about it, but he sure wasn’t the same old Riva I had been on in Saratoga just one or two days earlier.
Mr. Laurin gave him a chance to recuperate then he ran him in the Stymie Handicap where he only got beaten a neck by Canonero ll, the 1971 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner. The race was run in a new track record time. Riva Ridge didn’t win another race that year. He was third once and finished off the board in his other three starts, all on off tracks and turf. Even with all his victories and without a defeat on a dry track against all the other 3 year olds, he did not receive the Eclipse Award as Champion 3 Year Old C**t. They gave that award to Key to the Mint, who beat Riva in the Woodward, when Riva was fourth on a very sloppy track, and in the Preakness where we finished fourth to Key to the Mint’s third on a muddy track. I was also riding Key to the Mint whenever he and Riva didn’t run against each other, and I know Riva was the better horse of the two. He got robbed; he should have gotten the Eclipse as a 2, 3, and 4 year old.
But I guess that is standard.
Voters always seem to forget the first seven or eight months of every year. He was again the leading money-winning horse of his generation in 1972.
As a 4 year old, Riva Ridge won five of his nine starts and set five track records along the way. In his four defeats, three were on muddy tracks or on grass. The other was a second-place finish to Secretariat in the Marlboro Cup. Riva also broke the existing track record that day while finishing second, which didn’t count since he didn’t win. This time, he was voted the Eclipse Award for Best Handicap C**t, Horse or Gelding 4 Year Olds and Up.
Now you can see why Riva Ridge will always have a special place in my heart.
I feel that I had a lot to do with making him the champion that he was. In the wrong hands or being asked to keep going after he won his first stakes race could have ruined him. One can only question how many young horses end up that way, or which one is the latest? Riva had the ability to run, but I think kindness and time was what the doctor ordered, and we gave it to him.
~by Ron Turcotte
“Now you can see why Riva Ridge will always have a special place in my heart. “
