It's a bit of a shame that the brilliant Federico Tesio is rarely mentioned in this day and age Ron. History slowly buries it legends with time. Some might remember the man being Ribot's breeder, but how many recall his deeds in bringing the superstar Nearco into this world? Nearco sired Nearctic who gave us the mighty Northern Dancer. A small tribute to Ribot Ron, enjoy mate. I deliberated for quite a while before posing this question. "Is Ribot the best horse we've seen in the last 70 years?" I think I'd give him my vote.
Yes, a truly great horse. Italian-trained and owned and British-bred, I believe. His sire Tenerani was a great racehorse too. Wouldn't quarrel with anyone who reckons he is the greatest racehorse ever. Tremendous at stud too. Wish I had seen the 1956 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but must have been away somewhere (can't remember). Did notice the winning time for the race was a moderate 2:40.24, but that is a churlish comment, possibly soft ground conditions that day. Was very sad that Federico Tesio, who died in 1954, did not live long enough to see Ribot's triumphs. Info Source: Wikipedia.
Yes it was soft Swanny and Ribot actually slipped on the bend. Also as you could see it was a hands and heels ride
Never saw Ribot but even so as a young teenager was aware of the impression he made on racing. What I find amazing about the horse is that one week he'd run over 12f and a month later he'd be going over 9f. I believe he won over as far as 15f and the thought was that he'd go for the Ascot Gold Cup or the King George, and they decided on the latter. In the KG the second horse was the Royal runner High Veldt. He was a 3yo and quite possibly the second-best colt owned by The Queen. However that race broke him and he never won another race. The great shame with Ribot was that the USA breeders got their hands on him. He should have stood in Europe and probably should have stood in France or the UK. Although spoken of as British Bred he was very much Italian bred, the GB sticker comes because he was born in the UK. Tesio often used UK sires and Romanella, Ribot's dam, was bred to many British sires. As regards the breeding of Nearco Tesio wanted Nogara to be covered by Lord Derby's sire Fairway but could not get a nomination. He sent Nogara to Fairway's brother Pharos and the rest was history. You are right Tesio is seldom mentioned and should be. I often mention him when talking about the mass-breeding of one mare to one sire or sire-line which he most certainly would not advocate. I think he would be shocked by the breeding scene today.
Yes indeed, beautiful videos. You can always trust the Italians to be artistic and produce things with flair. They even got the background music spot-on! Treasure video clips.
I never saw Ribot but I thought his son, Ragusa, was one of very best middle distance horses I’ve seen. His improvement from being beaten at Chester and Epsom to winning the Irish Derby and King George was immeasurable. As a late May goal, he surely would have made an awesome four year old.
