Ruffian (born 1972 by Reviewer and out of Shenanigans) was a champion three year old filly racehorse. Known as the "Queen of the Fillies", as a two and three year old, she won ten of the eleven races she started. The eleventh was a match race at Belmont Park on July 6, 1975, between the filly and Foolish Pleasure , heavily anticipated and attended by 50,000. She never finished the race, having shattered the bones in her leg.
She was immediately attended to by a team of four veterinarians and an orthopedic surgeon, and underwent an emergency operation lasting 12 hours. Tragically, once the anesthesia wore off after the surgery, she thrashed about wildly on the operating table 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.
Until her tragic end, Ruffian wasn't only unbeaten, she was also never headed. She won eight stakes races, setting a new stakes record in each one. She raced successfully from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles with an average winning margin of 8 1/3 lengths. The Blood-Horse ranked Ruffian #35 in its list of the top 100 Thoroughbreds of the 20th century.
Ruffian is buried at the quarter pole in the infield at Belmont Park, facing the finish line.
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Last updated: 06-01-2005 19:02:16
