Ribero won just three of his twelve races, but one was the Irish Derby and another was the St Leger.
Owned by Charles Englehard jr and trained by Fulke Johnson Houghton, he made his debut at Doncaster’s Leger meeting in 1967 where he finished fourth – a good enough performance to make him odds on to win his maiden at Haydock in November. The following year he was fourth and third in a couple of Derby trials, which persuaded his trainer to swerve Epsom in favour of the easier King Edward VII Stakes at Ascot. There he finished well behind the Derby runner-up Connaught, but that didn’t deter connections from running in the Irish Derby in the hope of picking up some place money.
Now with the advantage of Lester Piggott on board – the Irish champion jockey Liam Ward rode the O’Brien horses in Ireland – Ribero tore up the form book by trouncing Sir Ivor by two lengths. In hindsight Sir Ivor had taken more out of himself at Epsom than anyone had realised.
Ribero disappointed in the King George, where he ran loose and while doing so scoffed a quantity of grass and rhododendrons, and the finished last at Deauville. Despite these reverses he was the 100/30 second favourite for the St Leger, and every ounce of Piggott’s strength and guile was needed to secure a short-head victory.
The Ribero Stakes was inaugurated at Doncaster on 17 July 1971, a six furlong race for two-year-olds worth a whopping £14,000. It was party of the richest ever one-day meeting in the UK, sponsored by Timeform. Later it became a seven-furlong contest at the Leger meeting. The last running (in 1982) was, fittingly, won by Piggott riding the odds-on Cock Robin. That colt is now forgotten, unlike two of his unplaced rivals, Teenoso and Teleprompter.