Who could ever forget Risen Star, a dashing, dark bay son of Secretariat out of the His Majesty mare Ribbon. Risen Star was bred by Arthur B. Hancock III and Leone J. Peters, the colt was acquired for $300,000 by Louisianans Ronnie Lamarque and Louie Roussel III at the 1987 Fasig - Tipton 2 year old sale at Calder. Risen Star's new owners were based in New Orleans, Lamarque was the owner of a local car dealership and Roussel served as majority owner of Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. Whilst vastly different in personality the pair made a formidable partnership, the energetic Lamarque loved being in the spotlight, but Roussel was far more reserved. Roussel, a cancer survivor and devout Roman Catholic decided that ten percent of the colts earnings would be donated to the "Little Sisters of the Poor" a Roman Catholic order of nuns.

Risen Star was a precocious individual, and the handsome colt towered over most of his rivals; standing 17 hands high, when he made his debut in the $40,000 Minstrel Stakes at Louisiana Downs for which he was made the 4 - 5 favourite. The colt duely obliged and won by a length, he was easily beaten in the $210,000 Sport of Kings Futurity next time out, finishing the runner up to the D. Wayne Luckas trained Success Express. Risen Star didn't lose his edge though, the colt bounced back to his very best winning back to back allowance races at Fair Grounds , prior to those victories Rene Gebbia was listed as Risen Stars trainer, but Roussel despite training more as a hobby than anything else, backed himself and took over the colts conditioning with Lamarque becoming an official co-owner.

The colt ran second in the Lecomte Handicap, the opening race of his sophomore campaign. Risen Star, was however just getting warmed up for bigger and better things as he coasted to another set of back to back wins in the Derby Trial and Grade 3 Louisiana Derby both at Fair Grounds. Risen Star had become the pride of New Orleans and the entire state of Louisiana, and he became their flagship heading into the 1988 Kentucky Derby, the colt won an historic race when he scored in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes over Claiborne Farm's Forty Niner, who won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes a juvenile. The stage was set for the 114th "Run For The Roses" Risen Star under Eddie Delahoussaye was 13th in the early going, with the grey filly Winning Colours setting the fractions, the stretch run was a thrilling one, as Winning Colours just held on to win by a neck from a fast finishing Forty Niner, Risen Star had to settle for third. Winning Colours became just the third filly to win the Kentucky Derby, but the Triple Crown series was only getting started, with the possibility of a wet track on Preakness day Roussel was not to keen to work or even race Risen Star he was 99 percent sure that he would in fact scratch the colt, but in a bizarre turn of events Roussel tore up his scratch card and decided to run Risen Star, and in so doing a star was born. The Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colours and Forty Niner were involved in a tussle in the early stages and on the backstretch with Risen Star sitting pretty in third, he was perfectly positioned by Eddie Delahoussaye who had him on the rail, ready to strike when a gap opened. When Delahoussaye asked Risen Star for maximum the colt showed great acceleration, leaving the field behind at the quarter pole going into the stretch, he won comfortably in the end proving that he was more than just a trail horse.  In an act of history repeating itself Risen Star's participation in the Belmont became speculative when the colt suffered a bruised right foreleg in a workout, but a day before the post position draw Roussel listed his colt as "90 percent fit" and Risen Star was good to go for the final leg of the Triple Crown. It was déjà vu as Winning Colours went off to set the pace in the Belmont, but she didn't have the lead for very long as Risen Star joined her on the backstretch, and on the final turn he transformed like Optimus Prime. In shades of his daddy Secretariat, Risen Star was in front by 6 lengths after a mile, and he increased the lead to 10 with a furlong left to run. Risen Star who was now a shooting star blew his rivals away winning by 14 lengths, recording the second fastest Belmont Stakes behind his immortal sire Secretariat of course.

Whilst he never raced again after the Belmont, his legacy still endures to this very day with the running of the $400,000 Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds, this Kentucky Derby prep is due to be run on the 25th of February,  and it should be an interesting contest with the likes of Grade 2 Remsen Stakes winner Mo Town and Grade 3 Le Comte Stakes victor Guest Suite in the mix.

Even though Risen Star left this world on March 13th 1998, his star has not faded, for he is surely galloping in the sky.