On This Date in Sports July 7, 1975: The Tragedy of Ruffian
Looking to jump on the popularity of the “Battle of the Sexes” in tennis between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, horse racing promoters arrange a special match race between Kentucky Derby Champion Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, a filly who is seemingly unbeatable. The race was a winner take all prize of $350,000 at Belmont Park, with 20 million watching live on tv when disaster struck, as Ruffian suffered a serious injury and had to be euthanized.
Ruffian coasts to victory by 13 lengths, setting yet another stakes record. Frank Y. Whiteley trained champions such as Tom Rolfe, Damascus, and Forego, but he is best remembered as the trainer of Ruffian. Two days after her death, he glanced at her old stall at Belmont and said, "That stall will never be occupied as long as I have this barn.
She won in every race that Ruffian ran, and she won most of them easily. Sired by Bold Ruler, winner of the 1957 Preakness Stakes, dominated all other fillies she ran against. The three races (Acorn Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes, and Coaching Club American Oakes) compose the New York Tiara. Her average victory was by eight and a half lengths, giving some to call the three-year-old a female version of Secretariat.
Ruffian turning three less than a month before the Kentucky Derby, she was held out of the Run for the Roses. That was run by Foolish Pleasure. A horse that Bold Ruler also sired. Ridden by Jacinto Valasquez, Foolish Pleasure beat Avatar with a strong surge down the stretch. However, hopes of a Triple Crown would be dashed as he lost to Master Derby in the Preakness Stakes and later finished third in the Belmont Stakes.
Over the years, there have been many match races in horse racing, none more famous than the race in 1938 between West Coast darling Seabiscuit and Triple Crown Winner War Admiral at Baltimore’s Pimlico Raceway. The memory of that race inspired the showdown between Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure.
The race became a hit as Ruffian became the darling of all sports fans, hoping to show that she could run with the boys. Besides having the same sire, both horses had the same jockey. To the surprise of Foolish Pleasure trainer LeRoy Jolley, Jacinto Valasquez chose to ride Ruffian, who Frank Whiteley Jr. Braulio Baeza trained would take over the reins aboard the Derby Winner.
As the race reached the half-mile mark, Ruffian began to pull away when suddenly she took a wrong step as a flock of birds came across the track. Her jockey knowing Ruffian was hurt, tried to pull her up, but she tried to continue before finally coming to a halt. Foolish Pleasure would go on to finish the race and win the purse, but all eyes turned back to the filly.
Advertisement
The news was as bad as it could be for a horse, as Ruffian shattered two bones in her front right leg. Over the next few hours, doctors tried to save the horse, but after waking from the initial surgery, Ruffian looking to run, did even more damage. This left doctors with no choice but to humanely kill her with a lethal dose of phenobarbital.
The horse racing community was shaken by the death of Ruffian as what started as a spectacle became a tragedy, as the heartbreak extended to the viewers, who many were so saddened by the death of the filly never watched racing again. Ruffian would be buried on the infield at Belmont Park, with her nose pointed at the finish line. In her memory, an annual race called the Ruffian Stakes for fillies and mares is now held at the track. They would also name a specialized veterinary clinic in her honor. Most importantly, all other match races have been banned in horse racing.