This book is about highly successful Thoroughbred filly, Ruffian. Ruffian was born at Claiborne Farm, Kentucky, out of some pretty well known blood lines. Her dam was Shenanagins, out of Native Dancer. Her sire was Reviewer, out of Bold Ruler. She was owned by Stuart and Barbara Janney, and trained by Frank Whiteley. She got her start in 1972 at Belmont Park, and had ten consecutive undefeated starts. She broke several track records, and competed in several high profile races- including the Filly Triple Crown. At one point, she had a splint after a race, but seemed to recover. Her regular jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, rode her in her final race- a match race held against Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure. During this race, she broke both sesamoid bones in her right leg. Vasquez attempted to pull her up immediately, but she fought hard to continue running, as she hated a horse in front of her. In doing this, she caused the damage to be worse. Surgery was attempted, and was not successful. She did a lot of record making and breaking things in her eleven starts over two racing seasons. There is a lot of speculation about why she broke down. Some say she took a bad step after breaking poorly, or after being startled by a bird. Others think it was a genetic issue, as her parents both had minor injuries that retired them from the sport. (In fact, another breakdown in a later horse who also had some of these same horses in her pedigree makes this theory seem quite plausible. The horse is Eight Belles.) Others suggest that the fact that she had to run over varying surface types over a longer distance played a role. In truth, it could have been all of these things. Ruffian brought more people into the sport because of her domination on the track, and had a lot of fans. Her accident and death resulted in the call for more humane treatment of racehorses and their medical care. Over the years, veterinary science has improved and the way these types of injuries are handled are a lot different than they were in the 1970s. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in Equine sports. It was really good, even though I knew what the outcome would be. It offered a deep inside look at how horses are trained and move through the racing world, what jockey's go through, and how horses affect all those that work with them.