RIBOT

To complete his extraordinarily international dimension, at four years of age Ribot (again played by the great Enrico Camici) triumphed in the King George and Queen Elisabeth II again over 2400 metres and on the track at Ascot, the temple of the great world gallop, beating High Veldt, a horse belonging to Queen Elizabeth II herself.

After his competitive career, Ribot began his career as a stud at Lord Derby's stud farm in Newmarket in 1957, and after an Italian season, he was transferred to America in 1960 to Derby Dan Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Like on the racetrack, Ribot also proved to be a top-class stallion in the breeding world. Molvedo and Prince Royal, two of his sons, were Arc de Triomphe winners. Ragusa was a winner of the Curragh and King George Derbies (like his sire), Tom Rolfe won the Preakness Stakes, Ribocco and Ribero were two other winners of the Irish Derby, Romulus was an excellent miler, Graustark proved to be an excellent sire, as did HDs Majesty, while Ars and Letters triumphed in the Belmont Stakes and Regal Exception in the Irish Oaks and Filiberto won the Morny. On the Italian tracks, in addition to Molvedo and Prince Royal, other great winners were Alice Frey, Epidendrum, Andrea Mantegna

Ribot died in 1972 at the age of 20.

Federico Tesio was also a talented artist, he especially loved painting and he always gave all or almost all of his horses the names of painters or sculptors. Theodule Ribot (from whom the Campionissimo took its name) was in fact a French painter (1823-1891) mainly known for his domestic genre works, still lifes, portraits and also religious scenes.