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 enlarge | Author: Jane Schwartz
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.50
You Save: $7.45 (50%)
New (27) Used (21) from $3.05
Avg. Customer Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 233843
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0345450000
Dewey Decimal Number: 798
EAN: 9780345450005
ASIN: 0345450000
Publication Date: April 30, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
#1RuffianGirl June 28, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The filly with the perfect record; the coal-black daughter of Reviewer and Shenanigans; the speedball, the beauty, the female, the freak.
that is Ruffian!That is how she is remembered and should be!this book is amazing!!!!down right amazing!ruffian desevers no less!!!
 Breaking point May 21, 2006
14 out of 26 found this review helpful
If you want to know the facts about the breakdowns in horse racing like the one that killed Ruffian, get a copy of the November 1, 1993 issue of Sports Illustrated and read "Breaking Point", William Nack's searing indictment of the industry. There are reasons behind these tragedies, things the average race aficionado may not always be aware of.
Horses don't just break their ankles (actually their sesamoid and cannon bones) for no reason, and they don't keep on running only because they have great heart and are driven to win (although this can be a factor). They also keep running because that's what they've been trained to do -- to finish the race -- and they often don't feel the pain at first, either due to natural adrenaline or to the drugs they're given or both. They overstress themselves (like any athlete), but the main reasons for breakdowns are the arduous training at too early an age, the unnatural conditions, the "toe grab" shoe (now known to be a cause of many such injuries) and especially the drugging which is still going on. Over 800 horses die on the track each year. The only difference between them and Ruffian is that Ruffian effectively died on nationwide TV in front of millions of horrified viewers.
Race horses often run on hairline fractures that go undetected. The trainers who suspected Ruffian was "not herself today" should have checked for such a thing. However, it's very likely that all that would have been done is to give her a corticosteroid shot so that she could run without feeling the pain. Ruffian didn't have to die. They could have rescheduled the race. But there was too much money riding on this event -- it couldn't be postponed for a mere thing like the health of one of the participants.
It is a mistake to start horses racing too early. At two years old, their bones and joints are not finished developing. It's exactly like the problems child athletes are facing today. By being pushed to excel before their bodies are ready, they face a much greater risk of injury that will put them out of the running for good before they even really get started. A large percentage of horses just as beautiful and intelligent as Ruffian who are tried out for racing fail to come up to standard. We never see them because they are slaughtered and sold for human consumption overseas. This even happens to some winners when they are over the hill.
If you love horses and racing, look into the facts behind the legend. Horse racing needs strict reform and regulation and doesn't have it, because the men who own these lovely creatures treat them as investments in an industry rather than as living beings. It's happening today, this minute, as I write this, with Barbaro. He may be dead before the day's over.
There should be as much concern for the animals' health and safety on the track as there is now in the movie industry. Some readers have called for a film version of this book, and I'm sure one will be made, and it'll say "No animals were injured in the making of this film". Too bad we can't say the same for racing.
(2008 update: Eight Belles. I have nothing more to say.)
Great work January 7, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I always knew the name Ruffian and had heard tales of her greatness on the track, but this book really does a fabulous job of getting behind the scenes of horse racing's greatest tragedy. I'm a better fan of the game for understanding what this horse meant to so many people and having a sense of her place in the history of the sport.
 I read this slowly, slowly... December 30, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
because I knew where we were going, and I could not bear it. But it happened, it was Ruffian's story, and I had to make it to the end, just as she did. Horses work for us and they die for us. The least we can do is take note of their passing, hats off, eyes down in respect. Jane Schwartz is no Laura Hillenbrand, but she's good enough. Four stars for the skill in writing, for the way she constructed her story, and the will to write it, TEN stars for the greatest filly to ever set foot on a racetrack. Ruffian broke my heart.
She Was Big, She Was Black, She Was A Freak September 29, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Ruffian and her tragic life moves this story to another level of sadness, it's in its own class. But how life goes on, and how brilliantly Schwartz described how the filly felt as she was put to death, "running easy into the light, free" was something that I have found so touching. The 1975 match, and anyone who remembers it must remember sobbing hours afterward, against Foolish Pleasure proved nothing, yet she ran, even when she could run no more. She died trying to do what she had always wanted to do, and it forever immortalized her as a heroine. At the end of the book, after the silent but meaningful funeral, and how White remembers the best horse he ever trained at the end, I was moved to tears. No book has ever made me cry. Except this one. But don't let it push aside the accomplishments this filly made. With her ever so powerful stride, she never got tired, and won by a dozen lengths every time out, she must have been a gift from god. Though she lasted only a short time here, her legacy, a powerful one, lives on through everyone who remembers her. And the ones who never saw her, but found her to be the true freak she really was.
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