Do You Remember this Horse Race?

Question

In July of 1975, Foolish Pleasure had won the Derby, there was a philley named Ruffian who hadnt been beaten. They had a match race at Belmont. It was billed as the battle of the sexes. During the race she was leading when she shattered her leg but didnt stop running for another 50yrds. She was put down rgt there and is burried there at Belmont. The question is why wasnt she allowed to run in the Kentucky Derby?........Thanks

Answer 1

The Derby is generally for stallions (or, in the case of Funny Cide, geldings). Actually, I believe Ruffian wasn't put down at the track, but rather was taken to an equine hospital, where she eventually lashed out and broke another leg, which is when she was euthanized.

Answer 2

Of course I remember Ruffian... well, maybe not remember since she died 10 years before I was born... but I certainly know about her... She's the greatest filly that ever was. I love that horse.

Ruffian was "allowed" to run in the Kentucky Derby. Fillies have run in the Kentucky Derby for quite a long time... almost forever. The first filly to run the Kentucky Derby was in 1875. It was almost common for fillies to run the Kentucky Derby all the way through the 1930s... but Regret was the only filly to win the race during that time. But around the 1960s (well truthfully around 1940... from 1940 to 1979, only 2 fillies ran the Derby... one in 1945 and one in 1959), there began a long gap when fillies didn't run the Derby... it lasted until 1980 when Genuine Risk entered and won the Derby. And since then there's a sporatic entry of a filly... it's not often that there's a filly good enough to run with the colts in the Triple Crown races. Winning Colors was the only other filly to win the Derby while there have been a few others who have tried.

Ruffian was a filly who could have won a triple crown race if ever there was a filly who could win a triple crown race. I believe the reason she was not entered was because (1) fillies just didn't run with the colts at that time and (2) because she was pointed toward winning the filly triple crown: which she did win in 1975.

Here's a list of all the fillies who have entered the Kentucky Derby, along with their year and placing...
YEAR FILLY FINISH
1875 Ascension 10th
1876 Gold Mine 15th
...........Lizzie Stone 6th
1877..Marie Michon 7th
...........Early Light. .8th
1879..Ada Glenn 7th
...........Wissahickon 9th
1883..Pike's Pride 6th
1906..Lady Navarre 2nd
1911..Round the World. 6th
1912..Flamma 3rd
1913..Gowell 3rd
1914..Bronzewing 3rd
...........Watermelon 7th
1915..Regret 1st
1918..Viva America 3rd
1919..Regalo 9th
1921..Prudery 3rd
...........Careful 5th
1922..Startle 8th
1929..Ben Machree 18th
1930..Alcibiades 10th
1932..Oscillation 13th
1934..Mata Hari 4th
...........Bazaar 9th
1935..Nellie Flag 4th
1936..Gold Seeker 9th
1945..Misweet 12th
1959..Silver Spoon 5th
1980..Genuine Risk 1st
1982..Cupecoy's Joy 10th
1984..Life's Magic 8th
...........Althea 19th
1988..Winning Colors 1st
1995..Serena's Song 16th
1999..Excellent Meeting 5th
...........Three Ring 19th

Opting for the Kentucky Derby rather than pointing the filly toward the filly crown races is quite a big decision. A filly might easily be able to win all of the filly crown races (like Ruffian), but might struggle in the colts' crown races. And if that happens, the filly might be overlooked when the champion horses of the year are chosen. Ruffian won the filly crown and was awarded the filly champion award for 1975. Had she run the colts races, she may have lost (I doubt it... but then i'm biased as I've already said I'm a Ruffian fan) and if she had lost, we might not remember her as anything special. Look at how many fillies have run the Derby and see how few you remember... even the ones who ran in 1999... It seems that Excellent Meeting must have been a pretty decent horse since she ran 5th to the colts in such a huge race, but it's only 8 years later and I don't know anything about her. And that's our attitude at a time when running fillies is acceptable... think about that attitude magnified to what it must have been after 15 years of not running a filly in the Derby as was true in 1975. If the fillies ran their crown races first, and the filly had already secured her legacy, we might see more fillies in the crown races... but that's just speculation... there'd be different problems associated with that since the fillies would be tired from their 3 races... so just ignore me ;o) anyway... That's why Ruffian didn't run the Derby. She's still the greatest filly that has ever set foot on the track.

Answer 3

I heard about what happened to Rachel last night, Sandra. I was watching "The Edge" on HRTV and they had a segment about it, along with a phone conversation with one of the vets who is treating RA. Apparently the mare suffered a bruised colon during her delivery last Tuesday night. She had a beautiful, healthy filly, according to the vet, but the foal's passage evidently caused some problems for her. They did the surgery to remove the damaged section of the colon to prevent it from becoming infected and necrotic. The surgery was successful, and as of last night, they were expecting the mare to make a full recovery. She's back on her feet, and she and her foal are both doing well. So I'm optimistic. Rood and Riddle is one of the best equine hospitals in the country- it's on a par with New Bolton- and there is every reason to think that RA will recover and will go on to have several more foals. As long as she doesn't develop a post operative infection, she should be fine,

Answer 4

Perhaps it was just the decision of the trainer to have her
race only against horses of her own gender. She totally
dominated other fillies in all her races. The match race was arranged just to settle some arguments as to how she would
do against a champion colt.

Answer 5

There was talk that she was going to run in the Derby, but she stayed running with the fillies and did win the Triple Crown for 3yo fillies - the Triple Tiara....On June 4, ESPN has a movie on her life and a book by William Nack - Ruffian: A Racetrack Romance - was recently published and is fantastic.

Answer 6

She would have been allowed to run if her owners had nominated and entered her. Whether she would have won or not is anybodys guess, but it wasnt really a great crop of 3 year old colts that year. As for her being put down right there after the match race she was taken to the equine hospital, but she was so headstrong she fought against the anasthetic and refused to be put under so they had no choice but to put her down

Answer 7

I remember Ruffian and the match race against Foolish Pleasure very well.

Ruffian didn't run in the Kentucky Derby because her owners chose not to nominate her. In 1975, nominations to the Kentucky Derby were due in February; and there was no provision at that time for late nomination to the Derby after nominations closed, as there is now; and is still the case, there was no provision for supplementary nomination the week of the race.

What you have to understand is that while Ruffian was a sensation at two, being undefeated and equalling two track records and setting two stakes records as she knocked off the Fashion, Astoria, Sorority and Spinaway Stakes, nobody had any reason to believe by the time Derby nominations closed in February that Ruffian was anything other than an awesome filly whose forte was likely to be races at a mile and an eighth or less.

Her sire, Reviewer, was himself a spectacular sprinter and a son of Bold Ruler, who was considered to have very definite distance limitations both as a racehorse and as a sire. Bold Ruler, in spite of being sire of Secretariat, wasn't considered to be an influence for stamina. His son Reviewer was considered a pure speed influence.

The Janney family, which owned Ruffian, were pretty much traditionalists when it came to their racing stable, and their trainer, Frank Whitely, was definitely a trainer from the "old school," which meant that it just wasn't in him to consider nominating a filly to the Triple Crown races. So Ruffian wasn't nominated. Whitely mapped out a campaign for her to go after the New York Racing Association "Filly Triple Crown"-- the Acorn Stakes, the Mother Goose Stakes, and the Coaching Club American Oaks. All of which she won, handily.

I think it was most likely that Ruffian's performance in the CCA Oaks that convinced Whitely and the Janneys to take a shot at Foolish Pleasure in the match. The CCA Oaks was at 1-1/2 miles, and Ruffian won off easily, equalling the stakes record without effort. This showed Whitely that while speed might indeed be Ruffian's forte, she was that rare "monster" who could carry brilliant speed to classic distances.

"Monster" was the word that was being used to describe Ruffian in the press, in the sense of her being something unnatural. She was a big filly, bigger than most of the colts who were racing in the Triple Crown, and she was this beautiful black-brown color that made her look solid as granite mountain.

If you weren't of an age to remember what things were like in the mid-seventies, that was the time when the women's rights movement was roaring through the culture like a tidal wave. We'd had the Billy Jean King-Bobby Riggs "battle of the sexes" tennis match, and now here was this awesome big beautiful black filly. Why not match her against the best colt?

I think the whole circus atmosphere that surrounded the match went against Frank Whitely's feelings. While I don't think he was adverse to running Ruffian against colts, I think he would have preferred to do it in the fall weight-for-age races, where Ruffian would have gotten a weight break against the colts and normal race tactics could apply. Match races can be screwy: one mistake and you're ten lengths out of it, and no chance to recover. Tactics become a major issue and the ability of the jockeys to judge pace is critical.

I remember the race well. There was a strong feeling that the only way Ruffian could get beaten would be to have bad luck, but none of us in my group who got together to watch the race had an earthly just how horrific the bad luck could be.

None of us ever got to know how good Ruffian might have been. On the other hand, we're left with the memory of her undefeated, because no one who saw that match race felt that she was beaten. We can visualize her as anything we want-- looming in our thoughts and wishes as something freakish and wonderful and perfect, galloping off into the mists of time and legend and what might have been, if only....

And those of us who were privileged to be around when she was racing wait to see if we'll see another one like her. Thirty-two years now and we're still waiting, and the promise she had is still unfulfilled.

Answer 8

i saw the race and did have foolish pleasure, but she was a true champion, back then the fillies, would stay in their division, and that was that. then people felt that she could beat the derby winner, so they met, and i think some birds or something flew in her way and she then took a misstep, but she ranks among the sports best, regardless of sex.