Ruffian

She was never defeated, and never headed. She set or equaled a new stakes record in every one of the eight stakes races she won. She raced at distances from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles with an average winning margin of 8 1/3 lengths. She was queen of the track, and everyone knew it.

Ruffian was bred by Mr. & Mrs. Stuart Janney for their Locust Hill Farm, and born in 1972 at Claiborne Farms in Kentucky. She frolicked as a filly and weanling there, and was shipped to Belmont Park in New York for schooling under the care of trainer Frank Whiteley Jr. Ruffian was a tall, very dark bay filly, deep bodied but long legged and with a long body and neck. There was no mistaking her for anything but a racehorse. She broke the track record in her first race, winning by 13 lengths. She won every race she was entered in her 2 year old season, but fractured a bone late in the year and was retired to recouperate for a while. She was crowned 2 year old filly of the year.

The next year, 1975, people were excited to see if she would come back as good as she'd been as a 2 year old. Her running style had always been to burst like a demon from the gate and never look back, taking the lead immediately and sprinting to the end of the race. Dark lightening she was. But as a 3 year old, the races would be longer than the 6 furlongs she was used to, as long as a mile and a quarter, even a mile and a half. It takes a super horse to sprint that distance. Was Ruffian a super horse?

Ruffian's first race as a 3 year old was on April 14 in the 6 furlong Calthea Purse at Aqueduct, which she won by 4 1/2 lengths. From then on, she raced at longer and longer distances, and her winning margins became increasingly longer as well. She won the 7 furlong Comely Stakes by 7 3/4 lengths, then ten days later the 1 mile Acorn Stakes by 8 1/4 lengths. Then she ran at 1 mile 1/8 in the Mother Goose Stakes and came home first by 14 lengths.

In winning the Acorn and Mother Goose Stakes, Ruffian had captured the first two legs of the Filly Triple Crown. The 1 1/2 mile Coaching Club American Oaks is the third leg, and she was ready for it. Ruffian went straight to the front, as she always did, and ignored the several persistent pursuers who flew at her. She did not even appear to be seriously pushed during these attempts to catch up to and pass her. Only one filly, Equal Change, could stay near in the closing stages, but Ruffian was clearly better, and won by 2 3/4 lengths.

She'd done it all. She held the Filly Triple Crown, had been Filly 2 year old of the Year, and would no doubt win that title as a 3 year old even if she never raced again. So, it was decided to put her to one more test -- there would be a match race between Foolish Pleasure, that year's Kentucky Derby winner, and Ruffian. Ruffian had never raced against colts before, but she certainly seemed to up to it. Foolish Pleasure's trainer gave him a few extra sessions in breaking from the gate fast, since Ruffian seemed to win all her races by leading from the start.

On July 7, 1975, more than 31,000 people watched Foolish Pleasure leap from the gate with his head in front, the first time a horse had headed Ruffian. Ruffian quickly sprinted up from the inside and stuck her head in front. Ruffian seemed to have trouble, bouncing off Foolish Pleasure for several lengths, but she increased her margin to about a half length in front as the pair approached the clubhouse turn. The crowd was cheering loudly as the race appeared to be turning into the great race they'd hoped for, two magnificent race horses head and head the whole way. But as the two horses approached the mile marker, there was a sound which both jockeys described later as being "like the breaking of a board", and the great match race was over. Ruffian had broken a leg.

Jacinto Vasquez, Ruffian's jockey, had a terrible time pulling her up; she was fighting to continue the race despite her shattered leg. Heroic efforts were made to save Ruffian. A pneumatic cast was applied before she was loaded onto the ambulance and a new one was applied in the barn area. A team of four veterinarians and an orthopaedic surgeon worked for 12 hours to save her leg. During the operation, Ruffian stopped breathing two times and had to be revived. Finally the surgery was done. However, the worst was yet to come. The anesthesia wore off and the filly awoke, disoriented and confused, as is often the case with horses and anesthesia. She thrashed about wildly despite the attempts of several attendants to hold her down. In her struggles, she fractured the new cast and the opposite leg, and caused even greater damage to the original break. Knowing that she could not live through further surgery, the veterinarians had to put her to sleep to end her suffering.

Ruffian is buried near the flagpole at Belmont Park, with her nose pointed towards the finish line. The flags at Belmont flew at half-mast, that day, July 7, 1975.