When did Ruffian die?

Question

I am doing a race horse project for school and one of the horses I am doing it on is Ruffian and I have looked everywhere but I can find that good of info.

Answer 1

Ruffian died from an injection of phenobarbital ( a barbituate or sleeping drug) at approximately 2.30 am on July 7, 1975. The vet who adminstered the drug was Dr.William O Reed, of the New York Equine Hospital ( across from Belmont Park in NYC) who was also the senior vet for the surgery which preceeded the filly's death. Contrary to what the answerer above me has said, Ruffian DID NOT BREAK any of her other legs coming out of the anesthesia following her surgery. What did happen is that she had a violent reaction to the drugs, and she thrashed around so much that the special case which was put on her leg was smashed to pieces. The wound in her leg reopened and started to bleed heavily again- and the filly went into shock shortly thereafter. She was given a mild sedative to calm her down and stop the thrashing, but it was clear that the vets could not operate on her again because she still had so much anesthetic left in her system from the first surgery. Besides this, her original attending vet, Dr. Prendergrast, was DEAD SET against any further attempts to save the filly- he knew that they would only be prolonging the inevitable outcome. He badgered Dr. Reed into calling the filly's owners, the Janeys, and getting permission to put the filly down. His tactic worked- and within an hour after the end of the surgery, Ruffian was destroyed.

The Ruffian story is without doubt one of the saddest stories in racing's history. The worst aspect of it was that it was totally preventable- and there really was no need to put the filly through what those men did. I saw what happened that day- I was eleven years old when I watched that filly break down on national TV. I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN that moment- and I doubt I ever will. I have long held the belief that Ruffian should never have left Belmont Park alive- it would have been so much more humane to have destroyed her on the spot, the way the authorities would with Go for Wand some 14 years later after that horse broke down in the Breeder's Cup Distaff and began running around the track with her right foreleg nearly amputated. Go for Wand was destroyed on the track in front of the grandstand, in front of an audience of millions of people. That's what Ruffian's fate should have been- and I think that if this had been done, it might have taught the the powers that be who run the sport of racing a LOT OF BADLY NEEDED LESSONS. They had neither the technology nor the resources ( or the know how) to save a horse with that kind of castastrophic injury at that time. Facilities like the famous New Bolton hospital, which is where Barbaro was treated when he broke down in the Preakness a few years ago, either didn't exist in 1975, or they were in their infancy and not able to take on a task like that one. Added to this was the fact that Ruffian had already demonstrated more than a year earlier that she would not be a good patient in the event of an injury like that one. At the end of her 2 year old year, she suffered a hairline fracture in one of the bones of her left hind leg, near the hock. The vet tried to put a regular cast on it, but the filly just kicked the cast against the walls of her stall repeatedly until she smashed it to bits, just like she would do a year later after she broke down in the Match. It was an eerie foreshadowing of what was to come- and the filly was sending a clear warning to the men who worked with her- but these men either could not or would not listen to or heed it. They eventually solved the first problem by putting a flexible pillow cast on the hind leg, and Ruffian tolerated that. But the men working with her had had their warning- but they didn't know it.

Could Ruffian have been saved if the same thing had had happened today, with all the techonological advances which have come along since the time of her death? I'd like to think so, but no one will ever really know. What is certain is that racing itself needs to change- in fact, it is in dire need of a complete overhaul and restructuring. Until that is done, we are going to keep seeing more tragedies like this one, and the ones that happened to Barbaro and Go for Wand. That's heartbreaking, but it's true. Welcome to racing's dark side.

Answer 2

Ruffian broke down on JULY 6 1975

the race was worth 225.000 and the time of the race for going  i mile 1/4 was 2:02 4/5

she ran against Foolish Pleasure

she carried 121pounds he carried 126

Both 3 yrs old

the race was at Belmont Park

she ran four 3 1/2 furlongs Thats when she broke down

Answer 3

She died early in the morning on July 7, 1975.  She broke her leg in the match race against Foolish Pleasure on July 6, and they worked on her all night but when she woke up from the anestesia, she thrashed around in the stall and shifted the cast that was on her leg and damaged her other legs... since they couldn't operate on her any more that night without causing her body serious problems, they put her down in the very early hours of July 7.

Every account I have ever heard of Ruffian's injury included the fact that she damaged her other leg.  The Ruffian movie based on Bill Nack's book says that she broke her other leg.  Just about all the internet articles about Ruffian say she damaged her other leg.  And there's a Sports Illustrated article from the week after her injury where they interviewed the vets which says "She had already done damage to her other legs, the cast was off, she was in worse shape than ever." http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/v...

I don't know because I wasn't there, but I've done my research on Ruffian and that's the story I heard... I know she damaged her cast... by most accounts, she hurt another leg too.

Answer 4

Ruffian (April 17, 1972 - July 7, 1975)

Note:

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Good luck