Ruffian (horse)

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Ruffian

Sire:	Reviewer
Dam:	Shenanigans
Damsire:	Native Dancer
Sex:	Filly
Foaled:	1972
Country:	USA (Kentucky)
Colour:	Dark Bay
Breeder:	Stuart & Barbara Janney
Owner:	Stuart & Barbara Janney
Trainer:	Frank Whiteley, Jr.
Record:	11:10-0-0
Earnings:	$313,428
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
Acorn Stakes (1975) Mother Goose Stakes (1975) Coaching Club American Oaks (1975)
Racing Awards
U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old- Filly (1974) U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old- Filly (1975)
Honours
U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (1976) #35 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Infobox last updated on: September 17, 2006.

Ruffian (April 17, 1972 - July 7, 1975) was an American champion thoroughbred racehorse, considered by many horseracing enthusiasts to be the greatest female racehorse of all time.

A dark bay or brown filly, Ruffian was foaled at Claiborne Farm, near Paris, Kentucky. She was bred by Stuart Janney Jr. and Barbara Phipps Janney. Ruffian was sired by the Phipps family's Bold Ruler stallion Reviewer and out of the Native Dancer mare Shenanigans. She was trained by Frank Whitely, Jr..

She earned the nickname "Queen of the Fillies" after being voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Two-Year-Old Filly in 1974 and winning the Filly Triple Crown in 1975. She was undefeated in her first ten races, covering distances from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles (1106 to 2414 m) with an average winning margin of 8 1/3 lengths. Her eleventh and final race, run at Belmont Park on July 6, 1975, was a match race between Ruffian and that year's Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure. The "equine battle of the sexes" was heavily anticipated and attended by more than 50,000 spectators, with an estimated 18 million watching on television.

The first quarter-mile (402 m) was run in a blazingly fast 22 1/5 seconds, Ruffian ahead by a nose. Little more than a furlong (201 m) later, Ruffian was in front by half a length when both sesamoid bones in her right foreleg snapped. Her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, tried to pull her up, but she ran on for another 50 yards (46 m), apparently unwilling to give up the race.

She was immediately attended to by a team of four veterinarians and an orthopedic surgeon, and underwent an emergency operation lasting 12 hours. Tragically, when the anesthesia wore off after the surgery, she thrashed about wildly on the floor of a padded recovery stall despite the efforts of numerous attendants, breaking the cast and causing even more catastrophic damage to her injured leg. The medical team, realizing that further surgery was useless, euthanized her shortly afterwards. Her performance in the 1975 season earned her the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Three-Year-Old Filly. In 1976, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Her breakdown and tragic death led to a public outcry for more humane treatment of racehorses. One result was that medications, such as Lasix for bleeding and corticosteroids for inflammation and pain management, came into common use in racehorses. While helping the horses in the short term, the increased use of medications at the track had a downside, as many horses were raced while injured. It can be argued that thoroughbreds are becoming more delicate as a result; racehorses today run only half as many starts before retirement as did their counterparts 50 years ago. Some of this effect is likely also due to breeding practices that select for horses likely to have short, brilliant careers—like Ruffian's—instead of the traditional racing career which might have lasted several years. Indeed, Ruffian's bloodline may be considered at least partly to blame for her broken leg; her sire, Reviewer, suffered three breakdowns.

Regardless, Ruffian herself may be regarded as one of racing's best and brightest. The Blood-Horse ranked Ruffian 35th in its list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century. Sports Illustrated included her as the only non-human on their list of the top 100 female athletes of the century, ranking her 53rd.

Fifteen years later, a filly named Go for Wand, among the best female racehorses since Ruffian's demise, also suffered a fatal breakdown at Belmont Park. It happened on Breeders' Cup Day as Go for Wand battled the older champion Bayakoa through the stretch in the Breeders' Cup Distaff. The two tragic events are often discussed together.

Ruffian is buried near the finish line in the infield at Belmont Park, her nose pointed towards the finish pole. It is often said, "she died on the lead."

(Buried nearby is another horse who died on this track in 1982, Timely Writer, running in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.)