LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Well before Mucho Macho Man finished a hard-charging third in the Kentucky Derby, his human handlers were preparing themselves for any result. Strong, regular doses of perspective had braced them.
Yes, there was so much excitement and so many dreams invested in this long-legged stallion. This was the first Derby for all of them — and no one could swear that any of them would be back this way again.
But they had one cushioning advantage: The example of Mucho Macho Man’s trainer, Kathy Ritvo.
Less than three years ago, Ritvo was near death, her heart giving in to degenerative cardiomyopathy. Through a medicated fog, she watched Big Brown win the 2008 Derby from a hospital room in Miami.
Being on the grounds Saturday — alive because of a heart transplant she received in November 2008 — and sending a good horse to the post was a major victory in itself.
Lest she get too caught up being a symbol at the Derby — no woman trainer had ever won the race, and certainly no heart-transplant patient had ever taken a horse to the post — her husband kept reminding her of where she was not so long ago.
“I just keep pounding into her to remember where she was and how close she was to death and that everything else is a bonus,” Tim Ritvo said in the week leading up to the race.
“Every day is an extra day of life for her, and you have to put those things in perspective.”
It is the same message Tim delivered to Mucho Macho Man’s majority owner, Suwanee’s Dean Reeves:
“Even as healthy as he is, I still tell him this is just a gift and to enjoy every moment of it regardless of the results. You do everything to prepare and you just hope that it all plays out in your favor that day.”
Ritvo spent the close of Saturday’s race taxing her new equipment, and it held up superbly. As Mucho Macho Man made his rush, going from sixth to third (and just being nosed out for second) over the last quarter mile, Ritvo was greatly moved. “When I saw him turn for home and he was running, I was jumping around and cheering him on,” she said.
“He was fabulous today,” she said of the best horse she has ever trained. “It went just the way we thought it would. He gave it his all and finished up well.”
And she was gung-ho for the next leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness. “He’s only going to get better. He’ll come back hopefully in a couple weeks if he comes back [healthy and sound] and we’re ready to go.”
Not bad for a woman who was told by her doctors and her husband that maybe this training thing wasn’t the best medicine for someone off a heart transplant.
The barn, they reasoned, was not the cleanest environment, and the anti-rejection drugs Ritvo takes greatly lowers her immunity to infection.
But working with horses was her life. She grew up around Suffolk (Mass.) Downs, a member of a horse-racing family (one brother, a jockey, died of the same degenerative heart disease). By 16, she was training. After marrying Tim, they teamed up to train horses until her condition left her too weak to work.
The Reeves stood by her as the horse progressed, resisting the temptation and outside advice to go with one of the “designer” trainers with Triple Crown experience. The owners were won over by her attention to detail — just last week Ritvo noticed an irregularity as Mucho Macho Man chewed on a ball. That revelation that led to the extraction of two teeth.
Training a Derby horse was a big step up in class for Ritvo, but when asked about her big shot leading up the race, inevitably a deeper answer came back. “You know what, after you’ve been through what I’ve been through ... he’s a wonderful horse and it’s a great opportunity, but I’m really glad to be alive,” she said.
The trainer wasn’t just schooling the horse at this Kentucky Derby.
About the Author
