Racing: Roses galore if she wins

Kathy Ritvo towels down Kentucky hopeful Mucho Macho Man. Photo / AP

Kathy Ritvo towels down Kentucky hopeful Mucho Macho Man.

Unquestionably the sentimental Kentucky Derby favourite will be Mucho Macho Man.

The colt's 41-year-old Florida trainer Kathy Ritvo watched the 2008 running of the Kentucky Derby from a hospital bed in critical care.

She was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a severe deterioration of the heart muscle, a condition which had killed her older brother at age 38.

Ritvo was six months in the critical care unit waiting for a heart donor and when one was found specialists told her they'd had only weeks to spare.

As she put the finishing touches to Mucho Macho Man's Derby preparation this week she admitted there were dark moments when she was close to death, but she was determined to hold on because she didn't want her two teenagers growing up without a mother.

If Ritvo can become the first woman trainer to produce a Kentucky Derby winner tomorrow morning it will be one of the all-time great Run For The Roses stories. She says, yes, the new heart will survive it.Mike Dillon