Horse Racing: Genuine Risk, the Kentucky Derby champion
The talented racehorse was foaled on the 15th of February 1977. The chestnut coloured mare was sired by Exclusive Native out of Virtuous. She has the honour to be the second filly in American Horse Racing to have contended and won the Kentucky
Derby, the first one being Regret (the winner of 1915 Kentucky Derby). She was ridden by jockey Jacinto Vasquez in the race. After winning the American Classic race, she was sent out to contend the other two jewels of the United States Triple Crown, the Preakness
Stakes and Belmont Stakes. The Kentucky foaled filly could not bag the Triple Crown as she only managed to finish second in both the events.
The champion thoroughbred was owned by Diana M. Firestone and bred by Sally Humphrey. Genuine Risk was the owner of $ 646,587 at the end of her racing career, when she retired. Trained by LeRoy Jolley, the mare is the winner of some of the most significant
races run in the country.
Genuine Risk started her athletic career at the age of 2. The first race that was won by the racehorse was the 1979 Demoiselle Stakes. She was then sent out to contend the 1979 Tempted Stakes as a heavy favourite. She did not disappoint her fans and trainers
and bagged the victory at this event.
Next year, at the age of three, the racehorse gave her best performances. Genuine Risk was the first filly after Regret to have contended the Kentucky Derby and have won it. After winning this race, she was then sent out to contend the other two legs of
the United States Triple Crown, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes (1980). Genuine Risk, however failed to grab the Triple Crown, as she was the second place finisher in the other two jewels. She also won the 1980 Ruffian Handicap, which is considered to be
one of the talented filly’s major wins. At the end of the 1980 racing season, Genuine Risk was adorned with the United States Champion Three Year Old Filly 1980 for her brilliant performances that racing season.
She was also then inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in the year 1986. This is the most exalted award in American Horse Racing. Genuine Risk is ranked #91 in the list of Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century by the Blood
Horse magazine.
Being a successful racehorse, Genuine Risk could not foal successfully. Her first mating partner was Secretariat, the 1982 Triple Crown champion. The foal that was born was however a stillborn colt. It was planned that she will be bred to Nijinsky II in
the year 1983 but then there was a change of plan and she bred to Secretariat once again. This mating was unsuccessful once again.
During the 17 years of her breeding, she only produced two colts that lived. One was named Genuine Reward (1993) by Rahy. Genuine Reward was a chestnut coloured colt, never sent out to the racetrack. The other one was by Count Our Blessing (1996) by another
chestnut coloured stallion Chief Honcho. Count Our Blessing also never raced. Genuine Reward was sent to stand at stud in Wyoming in 1997. On the other hand Genuine Risk’s other offspring, Count Our Blessing is currently a show horse known by the name of Westley.
Genuine Risk was retired from her not very pleasing breeding career in 2000 and was then sent to spend the rest of her life at Firestone’s Newstead Farm, situated in Upperville Virginia. The great mare was visited by hundreds of visitors at Newstead during
the annual Hunt Country Stable Tour (Memorial Day Weekend 2007). This was Genuine Risk’s last public appearance before her death on the 18th of August 2008. She was 31 years of age at the time of her death. Genuine Risk Handicap is run at the Belmont
Park in her honour.
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