Ruffian and Rags to Riches

I felt so sad when I learned that ABC/ESPN was going to do a TV movie on Ruffian, to be broadcast the day after the Belmont Stakes. Ruffian was such a brilliant champion, but her story is so horribly sad. And it was just too soon after Barbaro - whose breakdown and (way subsequent) death is still very fresh and painful. Which was why they planned the Ruffian movie for this year, I'm sure. They were intending to allude to the Barbaro story, and make hay (as it were) from the comparison. Well, the universe stomped that idea like a bug when on Saturday the winner of the Belmont Stakes was...a filly! For the first time in a century, a girl won this longest of the triple crown races.

Her name is Rags to Riches. If you saw the race, you know that she demonstrated not only tremendous talent and speed, but also incredible courage and heart. She was nose to nose with Curlin (also an awesome horsie) almost the whole way down the stretch, they were trading the lead with each stride, and she never gave up. She never even looked at him (although he seemed to be giving her the eye - and who can blame him? She's a BEAUTY!).

R2R does not match Ruffian in terms of career wins, and there have been other great fillies in the interim. And R2R's Belmont Stakes time of 2:28 and change leaves Secretariat's record safely intact, though her closing furlong was screamingly fast. As, of course, was Curlin's - who had three weeks previous tied for the official record time in winning the Preakness (Secretariat of course holds the *actual* record for that race, but due to a timer error, his *official* time was several seconds off his actual time).

Ruffian didn't win the Belmont stakes because she didn't run in it. She wasn't entered in any of the triple crown races, but was undefeated in 10 starts as a 2 and 3 year old. It was her 11th race, a match race against Foolish Pleasure, that resulted in her injury and death. Before the Belmont, R2R had run only 5 times, with four wins and one 4th place (the latter in her very first start). That's a pretty good record, but time will tell whether or not she'll be able to build a winning streak to match Ruffian's.

Not many fillies have run in the Triple Crown races. During my lifetime only 2 others (Genuine Risk and Winning Colors) have won (both won the Kentucky Derby). So R2R finds herself in rare company. Had Ruffian been allowed to run in the TC, perhaps she'd have been in that group as well.

It was a thrill to see a Belmont stakes in which nobody got hurt, everyone ran an excellent race, and history got made by a red filly with a beautiful white blaze. The commentators said that she's a terror in the stable - she likes to bite and kick, and is generally ill-mannered. I say - you go, R2R! You're incredible! And I hope that if there's a place horsies go when they die, Ruffian is looking down from that place and giving someone a nip or a kick in solidarity.