Amen, me too. 
Well certainly it was fortunate that ABC was not airming to complete and air this movie this year. I think even in light of Barbaro the next work might have some misgivings on airing it in 2007 should the worst case happen to Barbaro.
Obviously the name of Ruffian and images - as both NBC and ABC nightly news programs this evening aired footage of her - has come up a lot in connection to the tragedy of Barbaro.
Among them:
Associated Press 5-21 âHorse racing no stranger to tragedyâ
Because the last thing a sport too familiar with tragedy needs is more tears.
Andy Beyer /Washington Post 5-21 âA Nightmare With Precedent, Consequencesâ
For a sport that struggles to attract new fans and retain its old ones, the events at Pimlico could not have been more devastating. Those of us who remember Ruffian know how such a calamity can affect the national psyche. Racing was riding high in the mid-1970s after Secretariat swept the Triple Crown. And in the wake of Secretariat appeared a charismatic and electrifying fast filly. Ruffian dominated members of her own sex before her match race against Foolish Pleasure, the colt who had won the Kentucky Derby. It was a battle of the sexes that galvanized the nation, and when Ruffian snapped her leg after running an eighth of a mile, the nation recoiled in horror. After the filly was euthanized, countless would-be fans turned away from the sport.
Regardless of Barbaroâs ultimate fate, many fans in 2006 will have the same reaction as their counterparts in 1975. They will find it difficult to watch a thoroughbred race or muster enthusiasm for the sport for a long, long time.
While triggered by the circumstances of Barbaro, another article that is more tied to Ruffian by none other then her primary biographer:
We Care. But Why Do We Care So Much?
By JANE SCHWARTZ
New York Times May 22, 2006
No one wants to see a racehorse break down. The most hardened trainers and the most avid fans seem to agree on this much: A horse has to win, but nobody wants to see one die trying.
For complicated reasons involving the anatomy and the physiology of thoroughbreds, a serious injury sustained at high speed too often spells death for a horse.
That such a breakdown is traumatic for the owner, the trainer, the jockey, the groom and the exercise rider is understandable. Most of them work closely with the horse day after day. What seems to mystify people is why strangers feel the same way.
Since Barbaroâs injury early in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, the reaction of strangers to his plight â an outpouring of concern and love â raises a question with no easy answer: Why do people care so much about the fate of an animal to which they have no personal connection?
Barbaro emerged from surgery last night, but his fate remained unknown. If he survives the immediate trauma, he will face months of recuperation and rehabilitation before he can be pronounced recovered.
The image of jockey Edgar Prado leaning into Barbaroâs shoulder to help him stay upright was reminiscent of the photograph from 1975 showing Jacinto Vasquez leaning against his injured filly, Ruffian, and miraculously keeping her from going down on the track.
Ruffian was in the lead when she broke down in her famous match race against the Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure on July 6, 1975, at Belmont Park. She was so competitive that she kept running even though Vasquez, one of the strongest riders around, used every ounce of his muscle to pull her up as soon as he could.
Ruffian sustained a compound fracture of her right front leg. After enduring hours of complicated surgery, she reinjured her leg when she came out of the anesthesia and was euthanized early the next morning.
Horse racing is as competitive as any sport ever invented. Trainers use psychological tricks to try to outsmart the competition. Before the continuous monitoring of races, jockeys would poke, pull, kick and whip one another down the stretch in attempts to gain the lead.
But when their horses are hurt and have to be destroyed, it breaks their hearts.
In victory and defeat, and every day in between, horses remain wordless creatures. To those in the sport who spend their days caring for them, these thousand-pound thoroughbreds are like children â not in any sentimental sense, but in the sense that they cannot take care of themselves. They need people to provide them with water, food, shelter, exercise. The good ones are treated the way every child should be treated â with the mixture of care and discipline best suited for that particular individual.
No one who was involved with Ruffianâs treatment expected her to survive. Not in any rational sense. They operated on her in the hope that they might buy time for a miracle to take place.
There seems to be social pressure against killing an animal, even when that may be the most humane path.
When we care about someone, or some animal, our first instinct is to reject the idea of death. Most people want to leave open at least a small window of opportunity for hope.
At the medical center where Barbaro was being treated, people left signs for the colt, expressing their love for him.
Perhaps the real miracle â the one that matters to all of us, whether we know it or not â is that so many of us are still capable of caring so much.
Jane Schwartz is the author of âRuffian: Burning From the Start,â which was reissued in 2002.
In our lives in this country, most of what we do is not life or death unless we are in emergency room medicine. What the race horses remind us of is the COST of things - that some things are a risk and that sometimes lives are lost in the game played. It is a terrible reality, but it is reality. In most of our paths that reality is not quite so close [even on the interstate <g>], but it is a reality of life. If you are going to be on that path, it is one of the realities that must be faced. That of course does not mean that we do not try to improve things to make the game safer.
When I stood with my 25 yr old mare that I had raised on a bottle while I was 6 mos pregnant, and had to euthanize her, time came full circle. Her tired, sick head leaned on my chest as I whispered love. We can only do our best and accept the fate that comes with the path we choose. It isnât what happens, it is how we handle it. It is the nobility of the horse that teaches us so well how to handle it. God Bless them, each and every one.
A bit more on the movieâs presentation âŠ
BloodHorse âTalkin Horses with Tom Durkinâ June 1, 2006
Tom Durkin: "I think the Ruffian movie will be a plus for the sport. It is told through the eyes of Bill Nack a turf writer for Sports Illustrated. And Bill is a tremendous writer. I mean the best. He is also a great lover of the sport, and no one can communicate the passion racing fans possess like Bill Nack. So, the Ruffian tale, though tragic in the end, will have plenty of positives.
The eyes at Equidaily spied the fact that the NTRA has the promo video of this ESPN-produced Ruffian movie on their website. It is the same 3 minute + clip that was aired on that network during their extensive coverage around the Triple Crown.
The trailer really turned me off. All this talk about Ruffian being a once-in-a-lifetime horse and how her trainer knew how to prepare his horse.
But really, youâd have to be lobotomized to think that a match race was a good idea for a giant filly with suspect legs. Her sire had a history of broken legs (survived the first two, put down the third time) as well.
I seriously doubt the filmmakers are telling the story of how human egos let down a great equine athlete but IMO thatâs the real story here.
Iâm know there are plenty of people on this post who donât care about the movie, but since I was part of the making, I do. Thank you for the link; this was the first opportunity I have had to see it in full (I saw only the last 30 seconds on Oaks day) and I was able to see me on it! For those of you interested, around time mark 3:00 towards the rear of the crowd you will see a red coat outriderâŠthat would be my mare and I 
Iâd rather not
I saw that race on tv, i was fifteen at the timeâŠit made me sick then, and it would make me sick againâŠi experienced the same with a mare I had, and that was even worse, as it happened right in front of meâŠI could not eat or sleep for weeksâŠit seems to me that there are other horses, with less tragic endings that could portray the sport in a better lightâŠforego, john henry, cigar all were spectacular horses that have had good endingsâŠwhy make people relive the horror of that dayâŠi for one will not be watchingâŠand if barbaro makes it, and i pray to God he does, and has a pain free lifeâŠthat would be the story to tell, not because he was a better race horse, but because it shows the advances in vet medicine and how he touched so many peopleâŠthis sport has had enough tragedy without reliving one of its saddest moments 30 years later.
The rider casted as Braulio Baeza (Foolish Pleasureâs jock)
Daily Herald (IL) 7-13-06 âArlington jockey Torres ready for prime timeâ
excerpt
[Francisco Torres]The 36-year-old Mexican-born jockey, who moved to Chicago when he was 2, will play jockey Braulio Baeza in the ESPN movie âRuffian,â set to air next year during the final weeks of the networkâs coverage of the 2007 Belmont Stakes.
ESPNâs casting crew arrived in the jockeyâs room at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., in February, looking for someone to play the part of Baeza, who rode Foolish Pleasure.
Torres was not in the jockeysâ room at the time, however. He was recuperating from a neck injury he suffered in January at Oaklawn Park.
But Oaklawn Park clerk of the scales Terry McGee informed the crew that the best person for the job might be Torres, who not only looked similar to Baeza but also had his trademark straight-up sitting position in the saddle.
â snip â
Instead of riding races at Oaklawn, Torres was riding in his car each morning to Louisiana Downs to shoot scenes for âRuffian.â Filming began each morning after training, about 10 a.m.
âWeâd film Thursday to Sunday each week,â he said. âJust to let the horsemen know I was coming along, Iâd hang out at Oaklawn on the other three days. They were all fine with me rehabbing, and the day we finished filming the movie I was back riding at Oaklawn.â
Torres said he enjoyed doing his scenes in the movie, and most of his lines dealt with attempting to get the chance to ride either Ruffian or Foolish Pleasure in the match race.
âAt the time, Jacinto Vasquez (played by jockey Vladimir Diaz) was riding both horses,â Torres said. âSo Braulio spent time talking to the two trainers hoping to get to ride the horse that Jacinto did not choose.â
Sports writer Bill Nack, played by Frank Whaley, was scurrying from the press box, through the grandstand, to get down to the track and see what was happening with Ruffian.
Torres said that as Nack was about to cross the track, he forgot Foolish Pleasure still was coming down the stretch to finish the race.
âMr. Nack had to stop on the dime to avoid getting hit by Foolish Pleasure,â Torres said. âFor that part, all I did was ride my horse down the stretch. The directors set up a fan at the point where he (Nack) had to avoid me, creating the effect of him almost getting hit by the horse. They shot Frank Whaleyâs part later, just having him rushing onto the track. For the movie, theyâll put everything together to make it look real.â
Cisco is a great guy to work with, very nice. He spent a few years riding in Saudi as he was banned from the states. ITâs nice a talented rider like him is once again in the winnersâ circle!
If you like Native Dancer you should check out 5 generations later http://www.pedigreequery.com/izzi+lucky who is available for adoption through Lost and Found Horse Rescue www.lfhr.org sweet horse, not fast enough so he was going to be slaughtered.
He got lucky or unlucky, depending on how you see the glass. Here he is, the liver chestnut with a sweet mare who was in the feedlot with him named Princess of York, won $100,000, not enough, hmmm. Sheâs also at the rescue. Take a look at this video. http://www.mjarden.com/nk.html Have tissues ready.
Me too. As a famous race writer said during that time, the country never ex-haled after that race. I donât think I have either.
She was my hero as a child. Still isâŠ
The benefits of youtube.com âŠRuffian in the Coaching Club American Oaks; June 21, 1975 the complete race (length 3:07); called by the late great Chick Anderson at Belmont.
(She by the way equalled the stakes record in her effort)
Another revised version of another video, which is very well done, youtube.com tribute to her Final start (aka Great Match) that featured the folk song by Gerry Lukacik.
I tried to watch the video of the match but could not finish itâŠI started to cry all over again like it was today not 31 years agoâŠThis race ruined my thinking on racing for a long time and then the Barbaro tragedy and Pine Island. it is so heart breaking but at least they broke down doing what they lovedâŠI wish there was a way to prevent it thoughâŠwait a year or 2!
I hope the movie does her justice I do not know if I can watch itâŠ
I was a hair over 2 months, 2 weeks old when the Match Race was run. That is the first time Iâve ever seen the footage. Itâs particularly gut wrenching because it was like watching Barbaro all over again. I read the Ruffian book a few years ago and was in tears. That You Tube video was really well done.
I just watched the video of the match and kept rewinding it to the part when the jock jumped off. I kept hoping she would stop walking on it! Just stop walking around on it! That is what killed me. I was 9 when it happened, dont remember much of it, so seeing it again did not make me cry, I was just amazed at how she kept going on it. I still have the original newspaper clippings of it.
I think this could be a good movie, as long as they show her breakdown in a tasteful mannerâŠI want to see this becase it is a tribute to a great filly, not because of her breakdown. They are certainly treading on thin ice doing this movie, and Ruffian deserves something that will show her in the best light.
He refers to a [youtube] video cited here in this thread before, which if Iâm not mistaken was put together by a COTH poster.
