RUFFIAN
was a muscular, tall, almost black, promising
thoroughbred mare. She won each of her 10 races, by an
average of 8 1/2 lengths, outclassed and broke the hearts of
her competitors, breaking or equaling the track record at
every start. She was always at the front of every race and
simply flew away from the competition, and it looked
incredibly easy too. Many who saw her race are still
convinced that she was the fastest horse in the history of
racing. She was certainly the thoroughbred mare of the
century -- until that tragic, final race on July 6, 1975,
the duel against the Kentucky Derby winner stallion FOOLISH
PLEASURE, dubbed "Great Match", "Race of the Champions" or
even " Battle of the Sexes". Still on the back stretch,
after just 600 yards (3 furlongs), leading with half a
length, she broke her right front leg. She stayed on her
feet and her jockey struggled to get her stand. After hours
of emergency surgery, she panicked when she woke up from
anesthesia and broke the cast and the other, healthy front
leg. The entire American nation mourned. RUFFIAN was only
three years old.
No, it wasn't Pearl Harbor 1941, it wasn't Dallas November
22, 1963, it wasn't 9/11, but many Americans can still
remember what they were doing or where they were when they
heard the news on the radio that RUFFIAN had been
euthanized. It was the lowest, saddest hour in horse racing
ever.
Her story is told in this
song and video by Gerry Lukacik :
"...And she showed the whole world that Girls can be
ruffians too..!"
The
fact that she was not only the fastest of all the mares, but
might have been faster than SECRETARIAT was also admitted by his
trainer as a possibility - "BIG RED", the wonder horse whose
Triple Crown victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes over 1 1/2
Miles, 31 lengths ahead of second, hammered the record of 2:24.0
(that's an average speed of 37.5 mph), which still stands
today..!
But there was one big, important difference between the two: SECRETARIAT
had stamina, he was a stayer. He, who was rather clumsy
and slow as a foal, had to learn to get out of the starting box
promptly and accelerate in his first races. When he ran, he was
almost invincible thanks to his athleticism and stamina. This
was clearly evident in the Belmont Stakes, his quarter-mile
split times barely slowing: 23.6 - 22.6 - 23.6 - 24.4 - 24.8 -
25. But even the stamina of this "tremendous machine"
was not unlimited. After all, he was a horse from this world.
Others won the Triple Crown after him (anyone remember SEATTLE
SLEW?). His rival SHAM was probably injured during the race
which slowed him down in the last third. RUFFIAN, on the other
hand, at 510.3 kg was only slightly lighter than SECRETARIAT
(524 kg), but significantly heavier than her match race rival
FOOLISH PLEASURE at 481.3 kg, had a body comparable to
Secretariat and was an inch taller, but a sprinter.
She came out fast and intimidated her (mostly physically weaker)
opponents by immediately going to the front and sweeping
away. She ran in front at every race and was used to leave
every other horse behind.
The second difference was, that her legs were thin
as matchsticks. With her muscles trained for sprinting in
short races, she was physically a disaster waiting to happen.
The health deficiencies of her lineage were well known and her
trainer, Frank Whiteley, was certainly aware of it. He raced
her, so to be acknowledged, cautiously and just against mares.
Except for HOT N NASTY and perhaps COPERNICA, she may never had
real competition. Her jockey Jacinto Vásquez only needed the
whip in one race. Her phenomenal performance put him under
pressure to let her run against colts, which he, Whiteley,
intended to delay until she was age 4.
Of her 10 races, she had only run longer than one mile twice.
One and a half once, on June 21, 1975, just 2 weeks before
the match race. Won it in 2:27.8 (and the filly triple crown
with it), this 3.8 seconds slower than Secretariat two years
earlier (also at Belmont). Not because she couldn't run
faster, but because she didn't need to for winning. In
any case, she had been ridden tactically in that race, and
showed a basis for running longer distances.
SECRETARIAT ran on the racetrack two seasons long, not
significantly longer than RUFFIAN, but performed twelve races
longer than one mile. He was then sold into breeding, but would
have had the health to keep running. For the
good younger stallions that came after him, he
would had made it very difficult or almost impossible to
win. RUFFIAN, on the other hand, should had been trained for
stamina in the vague hope of making her foundation stronger. The
match race therefore came too early for RUFFIAN and
with too little recovery time after her last, longest race.
FOOLISH PLEASURE, compared to Ruffian, had completed his last
race a month before the Match Race, time to recover
well, which was his sixth longer
than a mile: Belmont Stakes, which he
narrowly lost to AVATAR in 2:28.2 (and with it the
Triple Crown). That means he ran slower than RUFFIAN,
although giving everything to win. While RUFFIAN had been ridden
tactically in her race, apart from the finish, not faster than
needed to win, and get through the distance. Therefore, for the
match race, FOOLISH's jockey Baeza could rightfully assume that
tactical riding would be of no use, especially since the agreed
distance was only 1 1/4 miles. So it became a terrible,
disastrous long sprint, and RUFFIAN ran with the fatal
confidence that she did what she did best and never had lost a
single one.
The first quarter mile was run in a blazing fast 22.2,
even though, unfortenately RUFFIAN had hit her left shoulder
hard in the starting box, which is why Foolish actually
had a nose ahead in the first few yards. And probably this was
the reason for her misstep when she changed gaits at the fatal
point. In any case, it certainly wasn't the pigeons flying off
the track; she had surely seen them many times before, and they
only seemed so close through the perspective of the telephoto
lens. Even a lion on the track wouldn't have caused her to spook
at that blazing speed. No, she was literally running herself
to death, driven by Foolish Pleasure, her first real
competitor. Her jockey could do nothing but let her go. Her
trainer (or the owners) could have done something. A longer
distance, for example - if they could have known beforehand (!)
that RUFFIAN could handle 1 1/2 miles well, or better than
Foolish. A long distance should have been approached tactically,
"calmly" and then finishing the last two furlongs. But Foolish's
chances of winning then would have been that minimal, so his
owners/trainers would hardly have agreed to it. Better yet,
refuse the match race altogether, postpone it, perhaps pretend
she had an injury, just give her more time and train her for
stamina -- if this had even been possible with her
matchstick-thin legs...
THE BUSINESS OF HORSE RACING
It
was not meant to be... and from the deepest ground we
humans are animals who love hero stories and four-legged heroes
too, and racehorse stories, perhaps since more than 5,000 years.
But behind it is a business that employs a lot of
people, in which hardly anyone gets rich: Seldom the owners,
trainers and jockeys, even rarer the veterinarians. Thousands of
racehorses had to race with injuries, many of them "normalized"
with medication, which is an incredible, blatant scandal (and
personally enough for me not to go to a racetrack or bet). Many
die with injuries, but most of them in the background and only a
few spectacular in front of the cameras as RUFFIAN - or EIGHT
BELLES (on May 3, 2008 in the Kentucky Derby 200 yards after
crossing the finish line in second place).
On such sad days it becomes clear to everyone: horse racing is a
business with horses and at their expense. If it were a
sport like the fans explain it and would like it to be,
scientific training methods, as usual in human athletic
disciplines, would be promising, lucrative and would therefore
be executed. Tell me, in which athletic disciplines records
stay for 50 years? And unlike humans, the animals can even be bred
for performance, as well as for rapid growth, fat
accumulation and additional ribs for steaks (leave away human
views of beauty). And most breeders claim to have this
in mind. But with what results, where is the proof? It would be
child's play to measure on the racetrack. Training and
breeding, where are you??
Racing for two-year-olds is one of the fundamental evils.
Mainly because you let babies run, they have to be short, and
the horses learn something totally wrong here, namely how to
sprint. But speed is the easiest thing to teach a horse
and the most dangerous! Babies love speed! However, you cannot
extend the sprints arbitrarily, even though this is the main
training method used, which is another evil. Tired horses in the
last quarter of the distance are most at risk. When the muscles
tire, only tendons and ligaments are left to absorb the impact
at 37.5 miles per hour.
The races with the largest purses should be for horses beeing 5
and older!
I know not everyone is the same. The vast majority of horse
racing trainers certainly only have the best intentions in mind
for the animals entrusted to them. I also assume that from Frank
Whiteley. May he in heaven enjoy Secretariat and Ruffian
playfull runnings on the green pastures who is faster. More than
in the past, many racehorses today are ridden out in the woods
and getting strong here.
We all have to make our horses stayers, not sprinters, in
order to stay healthy for a long life...
