I couldn't watch horse racing after what happened to Ruffian.
Ruffian, tragically, was a unique case:
* The actual injury to her happened when she was startled by a bird on the track infield and took a bad step, which would almost have to have been catastrophic
for a horse with a soft-boned lineage, even a horse as strong otherwise as Ruffian was.
* Ruffian was a granddaughter of Native Dancer---who was somewhat infamous for having a soft-boned skeletal structure and also sired a likewise soft-boned
son, Raise a Native. (One Raise a Native son who managed to avoid the line's soft bones was another racing legend: Alydar.)
* Her sire, Reviewer, suffered three breakdowns as a racer and the fourth, at stud, killed him.
* Her dam, Shenanigans, who never raced but was considered a top broodmare, was put down after eventually breaking two legs coming out of anesthetic following
intestinal surgery.
* Ruffian's jockey for the match race, Jacinto Velasquez, tried to pull her up to stop when he heard the crack that proved her injury but Ruffian wouldn't stop. Say
what you will otherwise, that horse had an overendowment of spirit.
* Ruffian actually underwent successful surgery for her leg injury . . . but she re-injured herself violently when she thrashed about coming out of anesthesia, both
undoing the surgical repair and concurrently shattering her own elbow with her own plaster cast.
* Veterinarians normally knew how to handle horses thrashing violently coming out of anesthesia until Ruffian's case, but Ruffian's reaction and death provoked
the creation of a recovery pool into which a horse is placed so they come out of the anesthesia in comfortable warm water.
