Risen Star(March 25, 1985 – March 13, 1998) was an AmericanThoroughbredracehorse who won thePreakness Stakes andBelmont Stakes in 1988.

The dark bay colt was the son of the greatTriple Crown winnerSecretariat and out of the mare Ribbon. Bred byArthur B. Hancock III andLeone J. Peters, Risen Star was bought byLouisianans Ronnie Lamarque and Louie Roussel III at the 1987 Calder Two-Year-Olds In Training sale. He was trained by Roussel, a devout Roman Catholic who was stricken bythroat cancer but recovered. Ten percent of Risen Star's winnings were donated to theLittle Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order of nuns.

As a two-year-old, Risen Star was lightly raced, winning the Minstrel Stakes at Louisiana Downs.

He started his sophomore season by winning theGrade 2Louisiana Derby under jockeyShane Romero. Then, two weeks prior to the Kentucky Derby, he had another Grade 2 victory in theLexington Stakes, in which he was ridden byJacinto Vasquez.

He went into theKentucky Derby as the morning-line third choice. The colts laid off the pace, their jockeys believing that the front-running grey fillyWinning Colors would tire at the end of the race, but she didn't tire and won by a neck going wire to wire. UnderjockeyEddie Delahoussaye, Risen Star was forced to the outside on the backstretch, where he stayed until making a charge at the head of the stretch. He couldn’t make up all of the lost ground and finished third.

Two weeks later in thePreakness Stakes, Risen Star and Delahoussaye won the second leg of the Triple Crown, turning the tables on his filly rival Winning Colors to win by 11⁄2 lengths over Brian's Time, Winning Colors, and local favoritePrivate Terms. Since Risen Star’s sire was (Secretariat) and his grandsire was (Bold Ruler), this victory meant that three successive generations won the Preakness Stakes, a feat accomplished only one other time.^[1]

In theBelmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown, Risen Star and Delahoussaye pulled away from the field to win by 143⁄4 lengths with a final time of 2:262⁄5. It is the fourth-fastest Belmont Stakes behind Hall of FamersA.P. Indy,Easy Goer, andSecretariat. Because of his two Classic victories, Risen Star won the second $1,000,000 Chrysler Triple Crown Bonus that was awarded to the three-year-old with the best finishes in the three races.

An injury that occurred in the Belmont forced Risen Star into early retirement. He won theEclipse Award as 1988's top three-year-old. By winning the Eclipse, he became the first third-generation Eclipse Award winner in the same category (his sire Secretariat won in 1973 and his grandsireBold Ruler won in 1957). Risen Star was retired to stud and went on to sire the millionaireGrade One winnerStar Standard, as well as German runner Risen Raven.

Risen Star died on March 13, 1998, at Walmac International, where he is buried. A top Kentucky Derby prep race, theRisen Star Stakes, is named in his honor. It is held annually atFair Grounds Race Course inNew Orleans, Louisiana.

• Risen Star's pedigree and partial racing stats

• 1985 racehorse births
• 1998 racehorse deaths
• Racehorses bred in Kentucky
• Racehorses trained in the United States
• Eclipse Award winners
• Preakness Stakes winners
• Belmont Stakes winners
• Hancock family
• American Grade 1 Stakes winners
• Thoroughbred family 9-c

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata