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Wonderful character development!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The 1970s were the height of the battle of the sexes. Men and women were in open combat, anywhere and everywhere: tennis (Riggs vs. King), the voting booth (ERA), and, on July 6, 1975, Belmont Park, when the undefeated Ruffian was sent off at 1-20 odds (you had to lay 20-1 odds on her) to defeat the Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure, mediocre in comparison to Ruffian.Period pieces are not easy to shoot, since they are done from memory and historical records. I was alive and following the New York tracks as a youth, and became aware of Ruffian in the spring of 1975, after she had blazed her way onto the front pages as a legitimate Kentucky Derby threat. Today, she would have run for the roses without a second thought, but her owners were old-school and gave it not a second thought.This film captures the phenomenon that was Ruffian, from promising ace-in-the-barn that her trainer knew would win her debut at 4-1, but not by 15 lengths in 1:09. No matter how good they look in training, you never know what's going to happen when they actually run. Ruffian answered every question asked of her, even winning when slightly injured, finding the heart to put away her strong-but-weaker peers.Ruffian was a freight train, and while the details of the film were glossed over, this was a TV film and that is often the case. Watch "Babe Ruth" from 1991 (TV) and "The Babe" from 1992 (Feature Film) for simimlar disparity. Indeed, you could also read the "Seabiscuit" book from 1997, and find it much richer than its paperback predecessor, "Come On, Seabiscuit!" from 1975.This was the discount version of the Ruffian story. The big-budget treatment she may one day get awaits.Ruffian was the first horse ever buried in the infield at Belmont Park. That is how special she was. She died of a broken leg because horses like her cannot live even long enough to recover on one, as they are simply born to run, her like no other.

I had just gotten interested in the Triple Crown races for colts when the famous "Battle of the Sexes" aired, and I do remember what happened to Ruffian. If you are not familiar with the story, I won't give away the ending, but the events in the last few minutes of this movie may be upsetting to some people.Sam Shepard did an outstanding job as the horse's trainer. Some of his reactions were not what I expected, but since the characters in this movie were supposedly real, perhaps he really did what was depicted. In that case, Frank Whiteley was an amazing man. He cared about his horses and about doing the right thing, but at some point he had to say yes, it's terrible, but life goes on.Frank Whaley did a very good job as a leading sports reporter. His personality didn't appeal to me personally, but he was quite a character. Vladimir Diaz did well as Jacinto Vasquez, the jockey who rode Ruffian on several occasions, a man depicted as having high moral standards despite all that was happening.The track announcers were excellent. And most of the leading actors gave good performances.The horse action was well done. We saw numerous unusual camera angles of the races. Every win by Ruffian was shown in slow motion.I liked the joke played on the reporters at Ruffian's stall. All this hype was seen as ridiculous by certain characters, as well it should have been. And this was 30 years before Paris Hilton!Effective use was made of what appeared to be real footage of fans of both Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure as horse racing's answer to Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs approached. And of course extras wore the t-shirts and cheered for their horse. This all drove home the point that this event was kind of silly. Several times it was suggested Ruffian could have just competed against the guys--Rags to Riches did just that the day I saw this--but if that never happened, then it couldn't have been in the movie. Displayed on the screen was a reminder that some events in the movie were fictional. Included among these was the specific event--shown in slow motion--that may have caused what I'm not giving away. Also shown on screen at the movie's end was the fact that no one really knows WHAT happened.The only weakness I saw was the fact that Ruffian's early career was rushed. The big event in her life was given so much time that the only way to adequately show her progress would have been to make this a three-hour movie (commercials included) rather than two. Perhaps two and a half would have been enough.But for the time allotted, this was a fine effort.

As an avid fan of Thoroughbred horse racing, and someone who followed Ruffian's career including witnessing her final race, I was pleasantly surprised by this made-for-TV film. Earlier in the day, the ABC network broadcast the Belmont Stakes in which viewers saw the unique character befitting many of the long-time sportswriters who cover Thoroughbred racing. Unfortunately for the film, Frank Whaley failed to deliver that persona in the key role of sportswriter Bill Nack. However, Sam Shepard in the starring role of trainer Frank Whiteley gave a most believable performance, capturing the real life trainer's restrained professionalism. While the film's setup for the Sorority Stakes was good, I would like to have seen more background as a lead into each of the races depicted. The writers capably demonstrated how the horse, even against the wishes of its trainer, was secondary to "filling the stands" for the moguls of the racing industry. To his credit, French-Canadian director Yves Simoneau did not overly dramatize the horse's final moments, instead, effectively borrowing the eye/lash closeup created by Krzysztof Kieslowski in his French-language film, "Trois couleurs: Bleu"

(SOME SPOILERS) Very factual account of the sensational front running filly Ruffian who blazed across the sports pages and major east coast racetracks, Aqueduct Belmont Monmoth and Saratoga, running up a string of ten victories, setting or breaking track records while doing it. Ruffian ended her racing career by meeting a tragic end at the Belmont Race Track on July 6, 1975 in her long awaited match race with the Kentucky Derby winner and last years, 1974, two-year colt champion Foolish Pleasure when she broke a bone in her right front foreleg, as the two champion horses were battling it out on the backstretch just before the half mile pole.Starting her racing career in Belmont Park on May 22, 1974 in a 5 1/2 furlong maiden race Ruffian ,overlooked by the betters, went on to defeat a field of 2 year old fillies by an astounding 15 lengths. Running up a string of four victories Ruffian then went on to win the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga by 13 lengths at the unbelievable time of 1:08 3/5. A feat that even the great Secretariat and Man O' War, breaking 1:09 at six furlongs as a two year old, couldn't do!It was in the fall of 1974 that the racing world began buzzing about a match race between the super filly Ruffian and champion two year old colt Foolish Pleasure with both horses undefeated in their respected, two year old Colt & Filly, divisions. This lead to Ruffian suffering a sprained ankle in her rigorous training schedule by her trainer Frank Whiteley, Sam Shepard, that sidelined her for the rest of the year. The injury caused Ruffian to miss a chance to face Foolish Pleasure at the mile two year old Champaign Stakes at Belmont Park, that Foolish Pleasure won, on October 5, 1974.1975 started out like gang busters with trainer Frank Whiteley getting his now three year old filly Ruffian into razor sharp condition as she stormed out of the starting gate and rolled over all the competition. Winning every race that she was entered in including the filly version of the Triple Crown, The Triple Tiara, that included the one mile Acron the 1 1/8 mile Mother Goose and the grueling 1 1/2 mile Coaching Club American Oaks setting stakes records in each. This set the stage for the big showdown at the Belmont Race Track the 1 1/4 mile match race that was to take place on July 6, 1975. Tragically it was to be the last time that the great Ruffian would ever step on a race track.Heart-wrenching movie that leaves you using up all your handkerchiefs as we see how Ruffian ran her heart out and ended up breaking down just as she was about to break away and take the lead from Foolish Pleasure in their match race. Ending up being put to sleep when she, with everything possible being done to save her life, not only re-fractured her right leg but broke her left as well as she came out of surgery and tried to stand on all fours which the poor filly, even with a brace on, couldn't do.The tragic death of Ruffian left Newsday sports reporter Bill Nack, Frank Whaley, who covered the great filly's career races so traumatized that he just couldn't bring himself to ever watch a horse race or write about horse-racing again. Great racing action, archived film as well as reenactments, makes "Ruffian" one of the best films about horse-racing ever made. The movie brought you back to those magical days in 1974-75 when Ruffian set record after record in burning her exploits across the sports pages that ended so tragically just over a year after she made her debut on the racing scene. What other athlete, human or animal, ever accomplished so much yet ended his or her career so suddenly. It's next to impossible to find any one in sports that can even remotely compare with her!Ruffian was buried in the park that she had some of her greatest victories as well as met her only defeat that also ended her life Belmont Park and was buried at the finish line where she was in 10 out of the 11 races that she raced ahead of any of the horses that she raced against. There's also a strange irony in not just Ruffian the great filly but "Ruffian" the movie that was broadcast on the ABC network on the evening of June 9, 2007! It's on that very day that another super filly "Rags to Riches" raced into the horse racing record books by winning the 1 and 1/2 mile Belmont Stakes becoming the first filly ever to win that race in 102 years! You can just see Ruffian having a track-side seat at the finish line, where she's been eternally entombed, smiling as "Rags to Riches" roared across the line beating the boys and doing what Ruffian set out to do, but sadly didn't, at that very same race track some 32 years ago.P.S As for "Rags to Riches" amazing Belmont Stakes victory Ruffian in winning the Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks, the very last race she was to win in her racing career, which was the exact same distance as the Belmont Stakes amazingly ran that race a full second, five lengths, faster then the Belmont Stakes winning Filly! How About That!