NEWS
Oldest Derby winner Genuine Risk dead at 31
Posted: Monday, August 18, 2008 12:21 PM
GENUINE RISK WINNING THE 1980 KENTUCKY DERBY (G1)
Genuine Risk, the oldest-living Kentucky Derby (G1) winner, died on Monday morning at Newstead Farm in Upperville, Virginia. She was 31.
The farm said Genuine Risk died peacefully shortly after being turned out in her paddock.
“Genuine Risk was an amazing horse with tremendous heart that lived a life befitting a champion,” owners Bert and Diana Firestone said in a statement. “We are truly blessed that she was a part of our life, and we are deeply saddened by her passing.”
In 1980, Genuine Risk became the first filly in 65 years to win the Derby. She is the only filly to hit the board in all three legs of the Triple Crown—she finished second in both the Preakness (G1) and Belmont (G1) Stakes. Genuine Risk also won the '80 Ruffian Handicap (G1) and received the Eclipse Award as champion three-year-old filly.
Trained by LeRoy Jolley and ridden primarily by Jacinto Vasquez, Genuine Risk finished on the board in each of her 15 career starts, collecting ten wins and earnings of $646,587. The chestnut Exclusive Native mare out of Virtuous, by *Gallant Man, was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1986.
Unable to transfer her racing success into the breeding shed, Genuine Risk was pensioned in 2000.
From 1982, when Genuine Risk became the only Kentucky Derby winner to be bred to another Derby winner—'73 Triple Crown winner Secretariat—until she was pensioned, she produced only two foals.
Although the Firestones sent her to several different stallions, Genuine Risk did not produce a live foal until delivering a Rahy colt, later named Genuine Reward, in 1993. Three years later, she produced a colt by Chief Honcho who was named Count Our Blessings.
Both colts suffered from a variety of problems and neither one ever made a start.
Genuine Risk spent the early portion of her broodmare career at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky. She was moved to Newstead in 1998 and pensioned two years later.
With Genuine Risk’s death, 1987 Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba is the oldest living Derby winner at age 24.
