| Kathy Ritvo | |
|---|---|
 Kathy Ritvo at the 2013 Breeders' Cup. | |
| Occupation | Horse trainer |
| Born | February 13, 1969 |
| Career wins | 213+ (ongoing)[1] |
| Major racing wins | |
| American Classics / Breeders' Cup wins: Breeders' Cup Classic (2013) Graded stakes races | |
| Racing awards | |
| Lou Smith Memorial Award | |
| Significant horses | |
| Mucho Macho Man, Liberada | |
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.
- ^ Staff. "Katherine Ritvo". Trainer Profile. Equibase. Retrieved 2013-11-08.