For readers unfamiliar with the name, Ruffian was a prolific, but ultimately ill-fated, American filly in the mid-Seventies. Bred and owned by Stuart and Barbara Janney and trained by Frank Whiteley Jr., Ruffian made her racecourse debut at Belmont Park on May 22, 1974, winning a maiden special weight race over 5½ furlongs by 15 lengths and equalling the track record in the process. The granddaughter of leading Bold Ruler won four more races as a juvenile, including the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park and the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga – both of which were, at the time, Grade 1 contests over 6 furlongs – before her campaign was curtailed by injury.
On April 14, 1975, after an absence of eight months, Ruffian returned to action as a three-year-old, winning her first two starts with plenty in hand, before being aimed at the Filly Triple Tiara, or Filly Triple Crown. The original Triple Tiara comprised the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, over a mile, and the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes, over a mile and a furlong, both at Aqueduct, and the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, over a mile and a half, at Belmont Park. Despite repeatedly stepping up in distance, Ruffian won all three races, by an aggregate of 24½ lengths, in stakes record times on all three occasions.
Undefeated in ten consecutive races, Ruffian tragically met her untimely end following ‘The Great Match’ against Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure, over a mile and a quarter at Belmont Park, on July 6, 1975. Having covered the first quarter of a mile in 22.2 seconds, broke down and was subsequently found to have shattered the sesamoid bones – two small bones at the back of the fetlock – in her right front leg. The injury required surgery, lasting several hours, but afterwards Ruffian became agitated by her inability to get up and in struggling to do so exacerbated the injury; she was euthanised in the early hours of July 7, 1975.