Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating second 50 years in the past at the moment with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly working towards Silly Pleasure in a extremely promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic finish on July 6, 1975, was a disaster for the game, and observers say racing has by no means actually recovered.
Two years earlier, throughout the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win turned a rallying cry for ladies all over the place. The New York Racing Affiliation, keen to spice up each day racing crowds within the mid-Seventies, proposed a contest just like that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Silly Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her begins, main gate to wire.
“In any sport, human or equine, it is actually inconceivable to say who was the best,” mentioned outgoing Jockey Membership chairman Stuart Janney III, whose dad and mom, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “However I am all the time comfy pondering of Ruffian as being among the many 4 to 5 best horses of all time.”
Ruffian, practically jet black in coloration and big, was the equine model of a Greek goddess. On the age of two, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was simply over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was absolutely developed on the age of 4.
Her title additionally added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was just a little little bit of a stretch as a result of it tended to be what you’d title a colt, however it turned out to be an acceptable title,” Janney mentioned.
On Might 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park monitor document, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, profitable by 15 lengths. She set a stakes document later that summer time at Saratoga within the Spinaway, probably the most prestigious race of the 12 months for 2-year-old fillies. The following spring, she blew by way of races at longer distances, together with the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.
Some within the media speculated that she had run out of feminine competitors.
Silly Pleasure had in the meantime ripped by way of an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. Nevertheless, after beginning his sophomore marketing campaign with a win, he completed third within the Florida Derby. He additionally had recovered from accidents to his entrance toes to win the Wooden Memorial after which the Kentucky Derby.
Second-place finishes within the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the concept that Silly Pleasure was one of the best 3-year-old male within the enterprise.
Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officers wished to check one of the best filly towards one of the best colt.
The unique thought was to incorporate the Preakness winner, Grasp Derby, within the Nice Match Race, however the group of Silly Pleasure’s proprietor, coach and rider did not desire a three-horse race. Since New York racing had assured $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Grasp Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.
“[Ruffian’s] skills gave her the benefit within the match race,” Janney mentioned. “If she might do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was in all probability going to be much more efficient in a match.”
A number of ballyhooed match races in sports activities historical past had captured the world’s consideration with out incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner Struggle Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of these races, although, had the gender divide “it” issue.
The Nice Match Race attracted 50,000 stay attendees and greater than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, corresponding to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night time Soccer” video games in 2024.
Distinguished New York sportswriter Dick Younger wrote on the time that, for ladies, “Ruffian was a approach of getting even.”
“I can bear in mind driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the girl that took the toll in a type of cubicles was sporting a button that mentioned, ‘I am for her,’ which means Ruffian,” Janney mentioned.
Because the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who additionally was the common rider of Silly Pleasure together with on the Kentucky Derby, had to decide on whom to trip for the match race.
“I had ridden Silly Pleasure, and I knew what he might do,” Vasquez instructed ESPN. “However I did not suppose he might beat the filly. He did not have the pace or stamina.”
Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Silly Pleasure to victory within the earlier 12 months’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to trip Silly Pleasure.
“I had ridden Silly Pleasure and ridden towards Ruffian,” Baeza mentioned, with language help from his spouse, Janice Blake. “I believed Silly Pleasure was higher than Ruffian. She simply wanted [early race] strain as a result of nobody had ever pressured her.”
The 1⅛ mile race started firstly of the Belmont Park backstretch within the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, famous that the environment turned eerie with darkish thunderclouds approaching earlier than the race.
Ruffian hit the facet of the gate when the doorways opened however straightened herself out rapidly and assumed the lead. “The entire world, together with me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the display screen and add to her legacy,” mentioned longtime New York coach Gary Contessa, who was a teen when Ruffian dominated the racing world.
Nevertheless, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the pressure of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her entrance proper leg.
“When she broke her leg, it appeared like a damaged stick,” Vasquez mentioned. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. Once I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She could not use that leg in any respect.”
It took Ruffian a number of moments to appreciate what had occurred to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez ultimately hopped off and saved his shoulder leaning towards her for assist.
“You see it, however you do not need to imagine it,” Janney mentioned.
Baeza had no alternative however to have Silly Pleasure end the race in what turned a macabre paid exercise. The TV cameras adopted him, however the eyes of everybody on the monitor have been on the filly, who appeared frightened as she was taken again to the barn space.
“When Ruffian broke down, time stood nonetheless that day,” Contessa mentioned. But time was of the essence in an try to avoid wasting her life.
Janney mentioned that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the physician for the New York Yankees then and was “forward of his time in fixing folks’s bones” — referred to as racing officers to see whether or not there was something he might do to assist with Ruffian.
New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, carried out surgical procedure on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s assist, secured her leg in an inflatable forged. When Ruffian wakened in the course of the evening, although, she began preventing and shattered her bones irreparably. Her group had no alternative however to euthanize her at roughly 2:20 a.m. on July 7.
“She was going full bore making an attempt to get in entrance of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza mentioned. “She gave all the pieces there. She gave her life.”
Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”
“After we received the phrase that she had rebroken her leg, the entire world was crying,” Contessa mentioned. “I am unable to reproduce the sensation that I had the day after.”
The Janneys quickly flew to Maine for the summer time, they usually obtained a spherical of applause when the pilot introduced their presence. On the cottage, they have been met by 1000’s of well-wishing letters.
“All of us sat there, after dinner each evening, and we wrote each one in all them again,” Janney mentioned. “It was fairly overwhelming, and that did not cease for a very long time. I nonetheless get letters.”
Equine fatalities have been a part of the enterprise since its inception, just like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, similar to Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. Nevertheless, breakdowns aren’t the one issue, and certain not probably the most influential one, within the gradual decline of horse racing’s recognition on this nation.
However the influence from the day of Ruffian’s dying, and that second, has been ongoing for horse racing.
“There are individuals who witnessed the breakdown and by no means got here again,” Contessa mentioned.
Stated Janney: “At about that point, racing began to vanish from the nationwide consciousness. The typical individual is aware of concerning the Kentucky Derby, and that is about it.”
Equine racing at the moment is a safer sport now than it was 50 years in the past. The Equine Damage Database, launched by the Jockey Membership in 2008, says the fatality fee nationally in 2024 was simply over half of what it was at its launch.
“We lastly have protocols that in all probability ought to have been in impact far ahead of this,” Contessa mentioned. “However the protocols have made this a safer sport.”
Stated Vasquez: “There are quite a lot of good horses at the moment, however to have a horse like Ruffian, it is unbelievable. No one might examine to Ruffian.”