Ruffian A Racetrack Romance

I just finished William Nack's new book Ruffian A Racetrack Romance. I include the subtitle because in this case it's a crucial tipoff. This is no clear eyed, journalistic study of the horse many in racing call The Greatest Filly. Instead, it's an impressionistic, almost stream of conscious account from an impassioned eyewitness. (It's small "gift book" size should be another obvious clue.) At first blush I was ready to dismiss it as the far lesser Ruffian book- with Jane Schwartz's Ruffian Burning from the Start published in 1991 being the gold standard- but after thinking about it some more I've changed my mind. Even if the book is being marketed as a tie in to the TV movie coming in June (for which Nack was an advisor), I think he should bear witness to what he saw back in 1975.

Breakdowns happen in this sport, a tragic but inescapable part of it is what racing people say. I think every racing fan, every true racing fan, has at least one lost horse that sticks with them be it a champ like Barbaro or Go For Wand or a claimer nobody ever heard of. Mine was called High Crest. It was at my first (and only) visit to Keeneland. It happened in the first half mile, right in front of stands. It was his front right leg and it was left hanging by a thread of skin. They brought out the screen to shield the fans from what was happening, loaded him limpingly in a trailer and humanely destroyed him before they reached the backside. Before the screen was removed one of the gate crew came and raked the blood into the dirt. As a young girl raised on Marguerite Henry's Black Gold, where the breakdown, though unbearably sad, is clothed in the glory and nobility of the Thoroughbred, the reality was absolutely wrenching. I remember standing near some snack stand after and the attendant asking my mother if I was okay. When it happens today I watch until the trailer is out of sight, saying a tiny little prayer under my breath. This horse got hurt in part for my amusement, it seems the least I can offer. I can only imagine how much worse it is to see it up close so, though it lacks the gravitas of his Secretariat book, I still recommend Ruffian A Racetrack Romance.