Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
By: Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
On July 4, 1973, 50 years ago, Riva Ridge won the Brooklyn Handicap, now called the Brooklyn Invitation because it no longer runs under handicap conditions. The Brooklyn Handicap was held at Aqueduct that year. The Brooklyn was not raced at 1 ½ miles as today, it was run at 1 3/16 m (9.5 furlongs.) What is all the more remarkable about this 1973 Brooklyn Handicap, run when Riva Ridge was a four-year-old horse, is that it was the same distance that was the Preakness stakes, which as to be explained was one very weird twist of fate.
Why was it so weird? Riva Ridge had won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont in 1972, but he lost the Preakness on a muddy track. Bee Bee Bee won the 1972 Preakness and Riva Ridge was fourth. Horses raced more often back then, and the Preakness was Bee Bee Bee’s 17th career start. Riva Ridge was the 1-5 favorite in that 1972 Preakness. It was a major disappointment as the trainer and owner wanted to win the Triple Crown—the same trainer and the same owner would do so next year, with Secretariat. As for Bee Bee Bee’s 17 starts at the time of his Preakness, this year Coffeewithchris had 12 starts, five less than Bee Bee Bee. Red Route One had the second most starts in the 2023 Preakness with 9 starts. Why the unexpected loss for Riva Ridge in the Preakness? It was a very sloppy track, and it appears that Riva Ridge could not handle it well. While on Youtube there is a “behind the scenes B roll” of the 1972 Preakness, I cannot find the actual race itself.
But 50 years ago, Riva Ridge won the 1 3/16 Brooklyn Handicap in a time of 1:52.40 on that Independence Day at the Belmont race track. The horse Riva Ridge beat was TRUE KNIGHT (USA) dkb/br. H, 1969 {1-x} from the Hyperion sire line. The outstanding runner TENTAM (USA) dkb/br. H, 1969 {2-f} was third. True Knight only lost by a head.
Riva Ridge’s taking of the 1973 Brooklyn Handicap was not merely a stakes win, it was horse racing history in the making. As it turned out, 50 years ago, Riva Ridge set a new world in that 1973 Brooklyn Handicap. Even more remarkable, according to Equibase, that record has never been broken, and it is now fifty years later. The horse that lost the 1 3/16 mile Preakness set a new world record at the very same distance when he was a four-year-old in the Brooklyn Handicap! While Secretariat might have had the swiftest 1 3/16 mile Preakness on record at 1:53.00. (The runner up SHAM (USA) dkb/br. H, 1970 {9-h} was also from the Hyperion sire line), the fastest 1 3/16 mile does not belong to Secretariat, but his stablemate Riva Ridge, and all this happened 50 years ago on the Fourth of July at Aqueduct.
By the way, while Secretariat has the Preakness stakes record, he does not have the track record. Farma Way set the Pimlico Track Record for 1 3/16 miles in 1991 in his Pimlico Special, which is run at the same distance as the Preakness on the same track. Farma Ways 1991 Pimlico Special was certainly a new track record and has since been unbroken at that track. Unbridled came in 6th in that 1991 Pimlico Special. Farma Way actually beat the Preakness winner Summer Squall. Both were born in 1987 and were four-year-old horses when they ran in that 1991 Pimlico Special.
I cannot find a Youtube video of the 1972 Preakness. Nor could I find a Youtube video of Riva Ridge’s historic, world record 1973 Brooklyn Handicap. But I could find a video of Farma Way’s 1991 Pimlico Special. The quality is poor, but you have it.
Some regard Farma Way’s time as tying Riva Ridge, while others do not. Farma Way has been given a time of 1:52.55, compared to Riva Ridge’s 1:52.40. I am skeptical whether the technology for measuring horse races was good enough to detect .15 seconds of a second difference, but so the claim is made that Farma Way has the second fastest 1 3/16 time. It is still the Pimlico track record, faster than any other Preakness or Pimlico Special. The Pimlico Special hosted some excellent horses and while technically not a “match race” as it was not just two horses matched together, functioned as a match race when Seabiscuit squared off against War Admiral. Whirlaway won the 1942 Pimlico Special in a walkover.
I must confess I don’t see a lot of Riva Ridge in pedigrees of today, but he is in that 20-b female family as the sire of BLITEY (USA) b. M, 1976 {20-b}, a Reine-de-Course mare. From Blitey descends FLIGHTLINE (USA) b. H, 2018 {20-b}, OSCAR NOMINATED (USA) ch. H, 2013 {20-b}, and OSCAR PERFORMANCE (USA) b. H, 2014 {20-b}. This line is one of the few sources of Whirlaway in modern pedigrees.
According to American Classic Pedigrees, “For [owner] Penny Chenery Tweedy, he was the savior of her father’s beloved Meadow Stud and Stable, and he always held a special place in her heart.” The Secretariat movie was factually wrong—it was Riva Ridge that saved the stables. And while I am pointing out factual inaccuracies, Riva Ridge and Secretariat had the same ridder. The scene where Secretariat’s trainer Lucien Lauren introduced Penny Chenery to a “new jockey,” Ron Turcotte is just phony-bologna.
And that’s the story of 50 years ago, when at Aqueduct Park, Riva Ridge set a new world record for a 1 3/16 of a mile in 1:52.40, a record that stands to this day. As fate would have it, Riva Ridge shared the New York Times with Chris Evert the human tennis player, who was to have a horse named after her that was to be the champion 3-year-old filly in 1974 and winner of the Triple Tiara.
