Review: Ruffian: Thoroughbred Legends

Ruffian: Thoroughbred Legends by Milton C. Toby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Ruffian” is one of the better written books in the Thoroughbred Legends series. Part of the reason could be the story of Ruffian’s life was short, coming to a dramatic end after only a handful of races. Of all the subjects in this series, Ruffian likely had the shortest career. There’s just less racing to cover, and no progeny updates that tend to fill a chapter in these books. At times, authors can take either of these topics to extreme, hurting the readability of the book. And Ruffian’s career is one of the most recent covered in this series. This means that there are plenty of sources, and many of the principals in her story could still be interviewed. The availability of sources and the short life of the horse allowed the writer to focus on different aspects than other books. For instance, this includes some detail on the first year of Ruffian’s life. Most of these books don’t have much to say on a horse’s first year, I suspect due to lack of sources, but weaning and early training are covered here. Also, detailed coverage of Ruffian’s final race and the efforts to save the horse’s life are included, giving this book more emotion than the others. A sad story, but a good overview of her life.

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