Ruffian: Burning From the Start

Ruffian was an amazing filly, cut down in her prime during the most exciting race of her career. This book captures all the awe of Ruffian, all the excitement of her life and career, and all the heartbreak of her unfulfilled potential. Beginning with her foaling, Schwartz follows Ruffian through weaning, breaking, training, and racing. She introduces us to the people who were most important to Ruffian, and to whom she was dear. The Janneys, her owners, Frank Whitely, her trainer, Mike Bell, Whitely's assistant trainer, Squeaky and Yates, her exercisers, Jacinto, and Bracciale, her jockeys, Dan, her groom, Prendergast and Harthill, her vets, and even her farrier Jarboe Talbott. The roles they played throughout her life added to the emotional impact of this story. Her own great heart and desire to win, however, is what made her a legend, and what connects her to us still. The book does stop at her death, as other reviewers have noted, but I wouldn't have wanted to sacrifice the detail and depth the author went into about her life. Instead, just know that to understand Ruffian's legacy, you'll look elsewhere. This is absolutely breathtaking coverage of her life and how she, and those who loved her, lived it. I fell in love with Ruffian in that timeless way you can fall in love with past heroines. I cheered for her, and I cried for her. I did not hope for the ending, I just relished her journey in the pages that proceeded it.

Ruffian and her tragic life moves this story to another level of sadness, it's in its own class. But how life goes on, and how brilliantly Schwartz described how the filly felt as she was put to death, "running easy into the light, free" was something that I have found so touching. The 1975 match, and anyone who remembers it must remember sobbing hours afterward, against Foolish Pleasure proved nothing, yet she ran, even when she could run no more. She died trying to do what she had always wanted to do, and it forever immortalized her as a heroine. At the end of the book, after the silent but meaningful funeral, and how White remembers the best horse he ever trained at the end, I was moved to tears. No book has ever made me cry. Except this one. But don't let it push aside the accomplishments this filly made. With her ever so powerful stride, she never got tired, and won by a dozen lengths every time out, she must have been a gift from god. Though she lasted only a short time here, her legacy, a powerful one, lives on through everyone who remembers her. And the ones who never saw her, but found her to be the true freak she really was.

No matter how great Ruffian was as a racehorse, her tragic ending overshadows all her record-breaking accomplishments. Her accident in the 1975 televised match race against Foolish Pleasure must have been truly heartbreaking to witness, and merely reading a description about it with the preparatory knowledge of hindsight goes a long way toward moving me to tears every time. This book tells the sadly-brief life story of the greatest filly in thoroughbred history: maybe the greatest racehorse of all time. Ruffian broke record after record in her two-year career and whatsmore, she carried herself with the pride of a being who knows of her greatness. Ruffian's grace and glory came not just from winning her races, but from the almost arrogant confidence with which she ran down any horse whose misfortune it was to be on the same track with her. She was the once-per-century embodiment of utter perfection in her species, and many believe she, with her massive size and "flawless" stride, could have outrun even the legendary Man O' War. And yet, in one of life's greatest ironies and certainly thoroughbred racing's most horrid tragedies, this magnificent filly suffered a terrible accident mid-way through her most celebrated race, breaking one of her front legs and necessitating her destruction. She alone of the hundreds of thousands of horses who have run at the track in the past century, is buried in the infield of Belmont Park, scene of her final start. A last race, it should be noted, in which she was leading Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure, and continuing to draw away at the moment of her fatal injury. Jane Schwartz has written a labor of love and tells a story with such force she all-but returns Ruffian to us across thirty years. Her book is sad, as the story of Ruffian, once a tale filled with so much glory and promise, must of necessity be, but it is also a tribute to the spirit and memory of a true athletic champion.

"The filly with the perfect record; the coal-black daughter of Reviewer and Shenanigans; the speedball, the beauty, the female, the freak." An excellent epitaph for one of the 20th Century's greatest horses. "Ruffian: Burning From The Start," by Jane Schwartz, is the sort of book that cries out to be made into a movie, for it is written so clearly, so cleanly, and with such genuine emotion, that it is impossible not to visualize each scene as you read. Nor is it a book that goes for cheap sentiment. Ruffian's story contains all it needs of triumph, joy, and heartbreak. Ruffian came out of a stellar bloodline, with Native Dancer and Bold Ruler for grandsires; her sire Reviewer was considered Bold Ruler's second-fastest son, right behind Secretariat. Ruffian herself was extraordinary, a freakishly large, near-black filly with an unearthly stride and speed and the drive to run. Trained by Frank Whiteley, Ruffian was named Filly of the Year in 1974 and swept the Filly Triple Crown in 1975, becoming only the fourth filly in history to do so. She was a legend in her own time, a horse who met or broke speed records, broke the hearts of competitors, and won the hearts of all who saw her through her beauty, her amazing swiftness, her competitor's spirit, and her composure. And then in 1975, in a match race with Kentucky Derby champion Foolish Pleasure, Ruffian broke the hearts of many when she broke her leg and had to be destroyed. Schwartz blends the details of the match race with the events in Ruffian's life--her startling debut, her uncanny speed at the track, and her rise to becoming the consummate racehorse. She portrays the devotion both Whiteley and Jacinto Vasquez, Ruffian's regular jockey, felt for her, the prideful affection that stablehands like "Squeaky" Truesdale and Dan Williams felt for her. And she foreshadows the outcome of the match race with details, such as Ruffian's tiny feet and delicate bones, that send chills up the reader's spine. The description of Ruffian's breakdown is emotionally harrowing, and the chapter remains taut to the moment when Ruffian is mercifully put down. While Schwartz does resort to a device to depict Ruffian's end, it works because it depicts her death as the humane act that it was. If Hollywood could option the excellent "Seabiscuit" for a movie, it could certainly do the same for "Ruffian." Her story was tragic, but her life was a blazing round of glory, and it deserves to be told once more.

As a Thoroughbred owner I have been facinated by the racing world and all of its stars from Man O' War to our newest star Smarty Jones. But I have to say Ruffian is my all time sentimental favorite.I can remember watching the match race between Ruffian and the colt Foolish Pleasure. It was a time for women's lib and Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs. I always wanted the girls to win!! But tragically Ruffian paid the price in front of our own eyes. I can remember crying for weeks after watching her beautiful black body fall. My heart was broken for years!This book is truly a magnificent tribute to one of racing's greatest heros, a big black filly named Ruffian. It reads much more emotionally than other tribute books currently on the market and will stay with you for years. Reading about Ruffian's will to keep running even with two broken legs will rip your heart out! Make sure you buy some stock in Kleenex before you begin this emotional memoir.

This is the story of the star-crossed filly Ruffian, whose death is the equine equivalent of Princess Diana's tragic accident, except for one difference: Diana was a princess; Ruffian was a queen. Ruffian died before a nationwide television audience in a match race with Kentucky Debry winner, Foolish Pleasure. It was only her eleventh race. Only eleven races, yet in that brief span, she has been hailed as the greatest filly of all time. But after reading Ms. Schwartz's book, I think the case can be made that she was the greatest thoroughbred of all time, and that includes the wondrous Man o' War. Consider these facts. Ruffian was bigger than most colts; was never behind in any race, except for the first couple of jumps out of the starting gate (when she broke her leg in the match race, she was a length ahead of Foolish Pleasure and widening); and was always slowing down well before the finish line, having destroyed her competition while cruising the backstretch. Yet, despite ten easy romps, Ruffian set speed records that are hard to believe. For example, her first race took place at Belmont Park. She ran the 5 and 1/2 furlongs under heavy restraint in 1:03 flat. This tied the track record! In the Spinaway at Saratoga, she ran six fulongs in 1:08 and 3/5. This was the fastest six fulrongs ever run by any two-year-old in the history of Saratoga, including Colin, Man o'War, Native Dancer, Nashua, and Secretariat! And in the Comely, Ruffian not only set a stakes record, she also created a minus pool across the board, both on-track and OTB. The match race is told in all of its horror, but the last few pages are so lovingly and poetically written, I stopped crying, and was just so glad Ms. Schwartz wrote this book, and allowed me to learn about the great Ruffian.