Contrary to popular belief, Riva Ridge's success was largely responsible for saving Meadow Stable from financial ruin.
[5] A son of First Landing out of Iberia (by Heliopolis),[6] Riva Ridge and his sire were owned and bred by the Meadow Stable of Christopher Chenery in Doswell, Virginia.
[2] Riva Ridge's name came from Chenery's daughter Penny and her husband, John Tweedy, honoring their favorite ski run at Vail, Colorado.
[3] A winner of the Eclipse Award at age two and four, Riva Ridge was ridden mainly by Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, who also rode stablemate Secretariat a year later.
Turcotte insisted that that month would make a huge difference in Riva Ridge's future career, telling Laurin "you can have a champion or a claimer.
Laurin planned to run Riva Ridge in the Hopeful Stakes after Turcotte was finished working with him, but the horse came down with a fever a few hours before the race and had to be scratched.
[12] Ultimately, Turcotte's idea worked, and Riva Ridge won four consecutive stakes in the fall of 1971, netting him honors as that year's two-year-old champion.
[3] In early 1972, Laurin announced that Riva Ridge would only run in three races prior to the Kentucky Derby, which shocked many observers.
[3][13] The morning of the Kentucky Derby, Turcotte asked Laurin if he could cut larger holes in Riva Ridge's blinkers because it would help the horse should he need to go to the front early in the race.
While Laurin thought it was too late to make changes, he allowed Turcotte to alter the blinkers as long as it wouldn't hurt the horse's chances.
Before his fourth-place finish, Laurin and Penny Chenery thought he was unusually docile in the saddling paddock and Turcotte described him as having been "dull" in the post parade.
[19] Riva Ridge then lost the Stymie Handicap by a neck to Canonero II, winner of 1971's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, and was off the board in his final three starts, all over off tracks or turf.
His winning time of 1:522⁄5 in the Brooklyn Handicap (raced that year at Aqueduct Racetrack) set a world record for 13⁄16 miles on the dirt.
After the death of Christopher Chenery in January 1973, Riva Ridge and his stablemate Secretariat were both sold to breeding syndicates and retired to stud at Claiborne Farm at the end of the 1973 racing season.