Molvedo

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Molvedo

Molvedo (1958-1987) dark bay, was born from the first coupling season of Ribot, the best horse ever trained in Italy.

The mare was supposed to be Staffa but, since the document had been lost for his trip to England, where Ribot was, it was decided to send Maggiolina, a inbred of Nearco, the most important reproductive that the Italian breeding has never produced.

Molvedo has grown…

Bred by the Razza Ticino in Gornate, near Varese, Molvedo was trained by Armando Maggi, had the great Enrico Camici, the jockey of his father Ribot in his most important races, had a robust structure, very different from his father who was small and squats.

Always majestic in seeing him gallop in his immense paddok but dangerous to approach because he had a very aggressive character that he transmitted to his descendants who, unfortunately, were not up to his international level.

In 1962 Timeform assigned Molvedo a score of 137, making it the horse with the highest score in Europe.

In their book “Century of Champions”, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Molvedo the third best Italian racehorse of the twentieth century behind Ribot and Nearco.

From the first gallops…

From the first gallops in training Molvedo immediately showed his class by winning, at two years, the Gran Criterium and was classified as the best foal of his generation but was forced to desert the first part of his three-year career for a muscle tear.

The return, in mid-June, coincided clearly with the victory in the Summer Prize which served as a springboard for his first trip to French territory, the Deauville Grand Prix.

Enrico Camici said it was a memorable race with a very powerful stretch in the finish line in which Molvedo clearly drove all opponents away.

This victory projected his staff in search of what was only a dream, participation in the great Parisian classic of October: the Prix De L’arc De Triomphe.

The Arc De Triomphe

And on the first Sunday of October 1961 at the Longchamp racecourse (in Paris) in the race considered among the most important in the world, Molvedo win the Prix De L’arc De Triomphe by beating the champion of French horses Right Royal for two lengths.

Molvedo has died…

Molvedo has died away in the winter of 1987, in Gornate, in those stables that already belonged to the noble Giuseppe De Montel.

Almost thirty years old, blind, the great champion no longer came out of his box and the groom who looked after him, found him one winter morning, his beautiful head heavily stretched on the straw.

The breed leader informed Mrs Bianca Verga, the owner, who wept.

Bianca Verga, a Lombard lady owner of a very important footwear industry, had passionate by horse racing, first with the trot and then the gallop.

In 1946…

In 1946, Alice De Montel’s generous intention to continue the glorious tradition of Giuseppe De Montel and Mrs Bianca Verga had purchased the entire Gornate structure and the thoroughbreds (stallions, foals, fillies, mares) that crowded it.

Upon Molvedo’s victory at the Prix De L’arc De Triomphe, overwhelmed by emotion, in the ceremonial hall of Longchamp, between the gentlemen in tuba and le tout paris, Mrs Bianca Verga felt she was passing out and turned to Marcel Boussac, who gave her the golden cup, begging: but what do they want from me? I want only some air.

At 90, the kind lady who made the Italian horse race great shielded herself from praise and interviews.

And now…

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