Remembering Ruffian
Jul 20, 2014 14:22:02 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Jul 20, 2014 14:22:02 GMT -5
Remembering Ruffian
By Jon White
Xpressbet
Forty years ago, Ruffian burst on the American racing scene like no other filly before or since.
Ruffian won the first 10 starts of her career in dazzling, Man o’ War-like fashion. When running in a stakes race, Ruffian broke or tied a stakes record each time. She won at distances ranging from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles.
Of Ruffin in The Blood-Horse book “Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century,” Kimberly Herbert noted: “The only time she lost a race was when she lost her life.”
Ruffian tragically broke down during a match race against Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure at Belmont Park on July 6, 1975. It was, without a doubt, one of the saddest days in the history of the sport.
Here is a look at the first half of Ruffian’s extraordinary career:
--MAY 22, 1974 (TIED THE TRACK RECORD). Unveiled in a maiden race at Belmont Park, Ruffian won by 15 lengths at 4-1, the only time she would not be the favorite. For the rest of her career, she would never be higher than 2-5 in the wagering. In her first race, she sped 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03 to equal the track record set 11 years earlier by Raise a Native.
--JUNE 12, 1974 (TIED THE TRACK RECORD). Making her stakes debut, Ruffian won the Grade III Fashion Stakes at Belmont by 6 3/4 lengths as a 2-5 favorite. She again tied the track record for 5 1/2 furlongs.
--JULY 10, 1974 (BROKE THE STAKES RECORD). Ruffian won the Grade III Astoria Stakes at Aqueduct by nine lengths as a 1-10 favorite. Not only did she break the stakes record, her final time of 1:02 4/5 was just one-fifth of a second off Raise a Native’s track record.
--JULY 27, 1974 (BROKE THE STAKES RECORD). This was the only time in Ruffian’s victories in which she was all out. She registered a 2 1/4-length win as a 3-10 favorite in the Grade I Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park, completing six furlongs in 1:09 to break the stakes record. Jockey Jacinto Vasquez had to go to the whip on Ruffian in the stretch to put away Hot n Nasty.
Hot n Nasty, like Ruffian, was three for three going into the Sorority. After Hot n Nasty romped to a 13-length victory at Monmouth Park in her career debut, she won the Grade III Schuylkill Stakes at Liberty Bell Park and Grade II Hollywood Lassie Stakes at Hollywood Park before suffering her first loss in the Sorority.
Though Hot n Nasty did not win the Sorority, she did come the closest to beating Ruffian that day than any other filly ever would.
Hot n Nasty would go on to win the Grade III Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes at Arlington Park in her final start at 2.
--AUG. 23, 1974 (BROKE THE STAKES RECORD). In a tour de force, Ruffian won Saratoga’s Grade I Spinaway Stakes by 12 3/4 lengths as a 1-5 favorite. She zipped six furlongs in 1:08 3/5, a final time that not only broke another stakes record, it was, at the time, the fastest six furlongs ever run by a 2-year-old at Saratoga. Ruffian’s 1:08 3/5 clocking was faster than such greats to have previously raced at Saratoga at 2 as Man o’ War, Native Dancer and Secretariat.
Dr. Manual Gilman, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 91, spent 32 years as the chief examining veterinarian at New York tracks. During those 32 years, Gilman anatomically measured a multitude of the finest Thoroughbreds to ever race in America. I became familiar with his work in this regard when Gilman’s measurements were included in many of the profiles of the best horses of the year written by Charles Hatton in the American Racing Manual.
Paula Welch Prather currently is the editor of the American Racing Manual. While I worked as a handicapper for the Daily Racing Form in the publication’s Phoenix office in the late 1990s, she showed me copies of Gilman’s actual conformation sheets with the handwritten measurements of numerous champions, such as Affirmed, Buckpasser, Dr. Fager, John Henry, Kelso, Seattle Slew and Spectacular Bid. I was able to make a copy of those sheets.
Thus, I have a copy of Gilman’s actual sheet showing Ruffian’s measurements taken on Sept. 3, 1974.
Many connoisseurs of conformation considered Secretariat to be nearly faultless. It is interesting to compare Gilman’s measurements of Ruffian at 2 with those he took of Secretariat at 2 on Sept. 6, 1972.
Here is the tale of the tape for the two champions:
Height: Secretariat, 16 hands, 3/4 inch. Ruffian, 16 hands, 1 1/4 inch.
Shoulder to Shoulder: Secretariat, 16 inches. Ruffian, 17 inches.
Girth: Secretariat, 74 inches. Ruffian, 75 1/2 inches.
Withers to Shoulder: Secretariat, 28 inches. Ruffian, 29 inches.
Elbow to Ground: Secretariat, 37 1/2 inches. Ruffian, 38 1/2 inches.
Shoulder to Hip: Secretariat, 46 inches. Ruffian, 46 1/2 inches.
Hip to Hip: Secretariat, 25 inches. Ruffian, 25 inches.
Hip to Hock: Secretariat, 40 inches. Ruffian, 43 inches.
Hip to Buttock: Secretariat, 24 inches. Ruffian, 25 inches.
Poll to Withers: Secretariat, 40 inches. Ruffian, 40 1/2 inches.
Buttock to Ground: Secretariat, 53 1/2 inches. Ruffian, 57 inches.
Shoulder to Buttock: Secretariat, 68 inches. Ruffian, 69 inches.
Circumference of Cannon Bone: Secretariat, 8 1/4 inches. Ruffian, 8 1/2 inches.
After Ruffian won the Spinaway, she next was entered in the Grade I Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 26. However, she was scratched from the Frizette.
As reported in The Blood-Horse, Frank Whitely, Ruffian’s trainer, said the filly “blew out three furlongs in :33 and change” the morning before the Frizette. But when Ruffian subsequently “didn’t clean up her feed,” she was scratched from the Frizette after she was found to have a “little temperature, 101.6,” Whitely said.
In Ruffian’s absence, Molly Ballantine won the Frizette by 6 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track under Laffit Pincay Jr.
After Ruffian was scratched the morning of the Frizette, Whitely considered running her a week later against the boys in the Grade I Champagne Stakes at Belmont. However, the morning after the Frizette, Ruffian “took a funny step,” as Whitely put it. X-rays revealed a hairline fracture in the filly’s right hind leg, which put an end to her 2-year-old campaign.
Ruffian was voted a 1994 Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly.
Winning the American Oaks
Online links to watch:
www.ovguide.com/ruffian-9202a8c04000641f80000000057572e4
By Jon White
Xpressbet
Forty years ago, Ruffian burst on the American racing scene like no other filly before or since.
Ruffian won the first 10 starts of her career in dazzling, Man o’ War-like fashion. When running in a stakes race, Ruffian broke or tied a stakes record each time. She won at distances ranging from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles.
Of Ruffin in The Blood-Horse book “Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century,” Kimberly Herbert noted: “The only time she lost a race was when she lost her life.”
Ruffian tragically broke down during a match race against Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure at Belmont Park on July 6, 1975. It was, without a doubt, one of the saddest days in the history of the sport.
Here is a look at the first half of Ruffian’s extraordinary career:
--MAY 22, 1974 (TIED THE TRACK RECORD). Unveiled in a maiden race at Belmont Park, Ruffian won by 15 lengths at 4-1, the only time she would not be the favorite. For the rest of her career, she would never be higher than 2-5 in the wagering. In her first race, she sped 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03 to equal the track record set 11 years earlier by Raise a Native.
--JUNE 12, 1974 (TIED THE TRACK RECORD). Making her stakes debut, Ruffian won the Grade III Fashion Stakes at Belmont by 6 3/4 lengths as a 2-5 favorite. She again tied the track record for 5 1/2 furlongs.
--JULY 10, 1974 (BROKE THE STAKES RECORD). Ruffian won the Grade III Astoria Stakes at Aqueduct by nine lengths as a 1-10 favorite. Not only did she break the stakes record, her final time of 1:02 4/5 was just one-fifth of a second off Raise a Native’s track record.
--JULY 27, 1974 (BROKE THE STAKES RECORD). This was the only time in Ruffian’s victories in which she was all out. She registered a 2 1/4-length win as a 3-10 favorite in the Grade I Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park, completing six furlongs in 1:09 to break the stakes record. Jockey Jacinto Vasquez had to go to the whip on Ruffian in the stretch to put away Hot n Nasty.
Hot n Nasty, like Ruffian, was three for three going into the Sorority. After Hot n Nasty romped to a 13-length victory at Monmouth Park in her career debut, she won the Grade III Schuylkill Stakes at Liberty Bell Park and Grade II Hollywood Lassie Stakes at Hollywood Park before suffering her first loss in the Sorority.
Though Hot n Nasty did not win the Sorority, she did come the closest to beating Ruffian that day than any other filly ever would.
Hot n Nasty would go on to win the Grade III Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes at Arlington Park in her final start at 2.
--AUG. 23, 1974 (BROKE THE STAKES RECORD). In a tour de force, Ruffian won Saratoga’s Grade I Spinaway Stakes by 12 3/4 lengths as a 1-5 favorite. She zipped six furlongs in 1:08 3/5, a final time that not only broke another stakes record, it was, at the time, the fastest six furlongs ever run by a 2-year-old at Saratoga. Ruffian’s 1:08 3/5 clocking was faster than such greats to have previously raced at Saratoga at 2 as Man o’ War, Native Dancer and Secretariat.
Dr. Manual Gilman, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 91, spent 32 years as the chief examining veterinarian at New York tracks. During those 32 years, Gilman anatomically measured a multitude of the finest Thoroughbreds to ever race in America. I became familiar with his work in this regard when Gilman’s measurements were included in many of the profiles of the best horses of the year written by Charles Hatton in the American Racing Manual.
Paula Welch Prather currently is the editor of the American Racing Manual. While I worked as a handicapper for the Daily Racing Form in the publication’s Phoenix office in the late 1990s, she showed me copies of Gilman’s actual conformation sheets with the handwritten measurements of numerous champions, such as Affirmed, Buckpasser, Dr. Fager, John Henry, Kelso, Seattle Slew and Spectacular Bid. I was able to make a copy of those sheets.
Thus, I have a copy of Gilman’s actual sheet showing Ruffian’s measurements taken on Sept. 3, 1974.
Many connoisseurs of conformation considered Secretariat to be nearly faultless. It is interesting to compare Gilman’s measurements of Ruffian at 2 with those he took of Secretariat at 2 on Sept. 6, 1972.
Here is the tale of the tape for the two champions:
Height: Secretariat, 16 hands, 3/4 inch. Ruffian, 16 hands, 1 1/4 inch.
Shoulder to Shoulder: Secretariat, 16 inches. Ruffian, 17 inches.
Girth: Secretariat, 74 inches. Ruffian, 75 1/2 inches.
Withers to Shoulder: Secretariat, 28 inches. Ruffian, 29 inches.
Elbow to Ground: Secretariat, 37 1/2 inches. Ruffian, 38 1/2 inches.
Shoulder to Hip: Secretariat, 46 inches. Ruffian, 46 1/2 inches.
Hip to Hip: Secretariat, 25 inches. Ruffian, 25 inches.
Hip to Hock: Secretariat, 40 inches. Ruffian, 43 inches.
Hip to Buttock: Secretariat, 24 inches. Ruffian, 25 inches.
Poll to Withers: Secretariat, 40 inches. Ruffian, 40 1/2 inches.
Buttock to Ground: Secretariat, 53 1/2 inches. Ruffian, 57 inches.
Shoulder to Buttock: Secretariat, 68 inches. Ruffian, 69 inches.
Circumference of Cannon Bone: Secretariat, 8 1/4 inches. Ruffian, 8 1/2 inches.
After Ruffian won the Spinaway, she next was entered in the Grade I Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 26. However, she was scratched from the Frizette.
As reported in The Blood-Horse, Frank Whitely, Ruffian’s trainer, said the filly “blew out three furlongs in :33 and change” the morning before the Frizette. But when Ruffian subsequently “didn’t clean up her feed,” she was scratched from the Frizette after she was found to have a “little temperature, 101.6,” Whitely said.
In Ruffian’s absence, Molly Ballantine won the Frizette by 6 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track under Laffit Pincay Jr.
After Ruffian was scratched the morning of the Frizette, Whitely considered running her a week later against the boys in the Grade I Champagne Stakes at Belmont. However, the morning after the Frizette, Ruffian “took a funny step,” as Whitely put it. X-rays revealed a hairline fracture in the filly’s right hind leg, which put an end to her 2-year-old campaign.
Ruffian was voted a 1994 Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly.
Winning the American OaksOnline links to watch:
www.ovguide.com/ruffian-9202a8c04000641f80000000057572e4
