Katherine Ritvo

Katherine "Kathy" Ritvo (born February 13, 1969) is a race horse trainer who won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2013 with Mucho Macho Man after having finished a close second in the same race in 2012. She is the first woman to have trained a winner of that race. She also was only the fifth woman trainer to win any Breeders' Cup race, and was the 14th woman trainer to saddle a starter in the Kentucky Derby in the 137 years that race had been run by 2011.

Born Kathy Petro, she grew up in a horse racing family from Massachusetts and married a fellow horseman, Tim Ritvo, in 1990. Kathy and Tim ran a race horse training operation in Florida, and In 2010 she took it over solo when Tim became part of the management of Gulfstream Park race track. Her accomplishments came against the backdrop of having been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2001 and receiving a heart transplant in 2008. In spite of the medication regime and immunity issues that transplant recipients face, she lives a normal life as a horse trainer and shows no signs of organ rejection.

Background and early career Ritvo was born February 13, 1969, to Peter and Mary Petro. and weighing under 100 pounds. She became a licensed trainer when she was 18. Her nephew, Nick Petro Jr., works for her today as an exercise rider. Tim and Kathy married in 1990 and soon thereafter moved to Florida, which they viewed as a better place to make a living in the horse racing industry.

Since the transplant, Ritvo shows no signs of organ rejection, keeping to a regimen of over 30 pills a day but otherwise living a normal life.

Return to race horse training

Ritvo's doctors advised her not to return to work in the horse racing industry because of the risks to her immune system posed by the dirt and dust that is part of the environment. Nonetheless, in spite of medical warnings, she returned to horse training within six months, and was credited for saddling four starters in 2009. Working with owners Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, the horse ran in the 2011 Kentucky Derby. Ritvo was only the 14th woman to train a horse entered in the Kentucky Derby in the 137 years it had been run to that date, and the third-place finish of the horse was the best for a woman trainer in the history of the race. She kept her perspective: "I'm so proud to be in the Derby, but just to get up in the morning is amazing." and Ritvo was only the 10th woman trainer to start a horse in the Belmont. Mucho Macho Man had overcome his own health problems in order to race, including having appeared to be lifeless at birth. Comparing her own experiences to the horse, Ritvo stated, "From the moment I opened my eyes, I felt fantastic. He's Mucho Macho Man and I'm Macho Woman."

She raced Mucho Macho Man in 2012, when he won three graded stakes races. She ran horses in 48 races that year, hitting the board 19 times. Her highest profile race that year occurred when Mucho Macho Man was a close second by a half-length in the 2012 Breeders' Cup Classic.

Somebody gave me a gift...I want to live every day. I want to appreciate every day. At the Classic in early November, going off as the second favorite, the horse won by a nose. With the win, Ritvo became the first woman trainer to win the Breeders' Cup Classic, and was also only the fifth woman trainer to win any Breeders' Cup race. Ritvo's fellow trainers in the race included Americans D. Wayne Lukas, Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, and Bob Baffert, as well as Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien.

At the end of 2013, Ritvo was named as a recipient of the Lou Smith Memorial Award for Yearly Achievement, given by the New England Turf Writers Association, noting her Massachusetts roots. The win in the Breeders' Cup Classic was selected as the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year with participation in the online polling for that award up by more than 50% from the previous year, believed to be largely due to the popularity of Mucho Macho Man and the people around him, including Ritvo.

ESPN noted the worldwide success of women horse trainers in 2013, particularly owing to wins in three of the world's major races within a one-month period. In October, Criquette Head-Maarek won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe with Treve, the only woman trainer to win the Arc. Then, a few days after Ritvo's horse won the Breeders' Cup Classic, the Melbourne Cup was won by Fiorente, a horse trained by Australian trainer Gai Waterhouse, who was only the second woman to train a winner in that race.

, Ritvo trains a stable of about a dozen horses, Her son Michael became a jockey and won his first race in March 2014 in his second trip out as an apprentice rider.