Ruffian - 1974 Spinaway Stakes

Ruffian destroys the field by 15 lengths in her last race as a 2 year old.
Frank Y. Whiteley trained champions such as Tom Rolfe, Damacus, 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. There'll never be another horse worthy of entering it."

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Horse
• Racing
• Ruffian
• 1974
• Spinaway
• Stakes
• Dave
• Johnson
• Harvey
• Pack
• Saratoga
• Springs
• New
• York

[FLYFISH10605]

I was at the Spinaway that day. This is the only one of Ruffian's races where she was not ridden by Jacinto Vasquez. This day, Vincent Bracciale rode her and the only reason that Ruffian was as high as 1-5 was because Laughing Bridge had an easy time in one of the preps - the Schuylerville as I recall. But Ruffian was too much and well-deserving of that great designation: "freak".

[cf1970]

@FLYFISH10605 You're a very lucky man to have seen Ruffian run in the flesh; I am more than a little envious. :) "Freak" is the perfect word for her brilliance. Mr. Bracciale also rode Ruffian in the Astoria - two races previous to this one, according to the DRF chart - the first of only two times Ruffian was not ridden by Mr. Vasquez.

Thank you very much for sharing your invaluable input. Please feel free to share more of your experiences.

[marknolan5553]

i'm from schuylerville. great vid, thanks for putting it up. great horse too.

[cf1970]

You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Ruffian was one of a kind.

[BE109]

Ruffian could have went as fast as you needed her to go. good lord,she is never really asked for anything,she was doing it all on her own!

[cf1970]

She was a real terror on the track. Amazing.

[ruffchamp1]

ruffian-the fastest 6f EVER by a 2yo male or female at saratoga..pretty amazing since secretariat,man o war,dr fager,affirmed, native dancer etc.. ran there among many other immortals...and she was the fastest...she had the speed of a dr fager or a seattle slew and the stamina of a secretariat...absolutely brilliant.

[ridingxruffian]

Holy Lord. She's a beast. She completely demolishes the field.

[RuffianQueenOfRacing]

sucks they didnt keep the camera on HER!

[TheHuntress1992]

She partially broke one of her hind legs in the race, about three lengths from the wire. Even with this injury she went on to win impressively. What a powerful filly.

[xxcrystlecityxx]

ruffian, a true legend, she was and still is the greatest filly or even the greatestracehorse of all time, she was one of a kind and NO ONE can even have the honour to be compared to her, she is just to great!

[bri6760]

I saw Ruffian live at the Coaching Club American Oaks, later on in 1995, people dont remember this was a very strong group of fillies, Copernica (One eyed Filly) was actually higher rated early on as was Hot n'Nasty, You had Sir Ivors Sorrow and Point in time, as well as Laughing bridge. Ruffian beat them all and beat them handily. One reason records where shattered, as this group could fly, Ruffian was just faster...

[coollukin]

What an amazing Animal! She would have beat that stallion in the last match race.

[DeVerhevenEland]

I loved Ruffian.

It's so sad.

[RidingWithRuffian]

Great race this was. I can't believe Laughing Bridge's trainer thought his filly could win this. Pretty magnificent to think that she was moving so great the cameras could only film the 2nd and 3rd place horses. The other fillies couldn't even come close to beating this filly. This was her best race she ran I believe.