They're Moving Father's Grave

The Clancy Brothers have all passed away. They were an Irish singing group, very popular in the 50s, 60s, and 70s who brought their brand of Irish song and humor to the United States from Ireland.

One of their ditties was, "They're Moving Father's Grave to Build a Sewer." Any type of song that skewers the upper class is always popular with working-class audiences, and this one was no exception. The lyrics started...

Oh, they're moving father's grave to build a sewer.
They're moving it regardless of expense.
They're moving his remains, to lay down nine-inch drains,
To irrigate some posh bloke's residence..."

I immediately started to think of this song when I read in Saturday's New York Times that they have already moved the horse Ruffian's remains from the infield of Belmont Park Race Track to Claiborne Farms in Paris, Kentucky where she was foaled.

Ruffian, if you're old enough to remember, shattered her left front ankle in a match race against Foolish Pleasure on July 6, 1975. Foolish Pleasure had won the Kentucky Derby and the match race gained traction as a female vs. male event.

The $350,000 match race was to be a mile and a quarter. In those does Belmont's mile and a quarter races started on the backstretch, literally cutting across on the training track, making the race the longest one-turn race you can imagine. 

Ruffian was already a standout 3-year-old filly, having won 10 out of 10 races, 8 Graded Stakes and an allowance race after her 2-year-old maiden win by 15 lengths.  I remember reading a Sports Illustrated story on her when she made her debut that her trainer Frank Whiteley Jr. gave Jacinto Vasquez his instructions as he gave him his leg up: "Don't fuck up." Vasquez never did

The winning streak included the three races NYRA collectively called the Filly Triple Crown. These included the Acorn, the Mother Goose and the Coaching Club American Oaks, then run at a mile and a half. The three races are still run, but the Coaching Club's distance has shrunk to a mile and an eighth.

After being 4-1 in her debut, Ruffian's was so well-thought of that her odds couldn't be found with a tweezer. She was perpetually odds-on, with once being the lowest odds possible, 1-20 (5¢ on the dollar) in the Coaching Club on June 21, her last race before the match race with Foolish Pleasure.   

Nearly a half a mile into the match race Ruffian, ahead by a neck, had her ankle snap. She continued on for another 40 yards before stopping. The split for that half mile was :443/5, a suicidal pace for both horses for a mile and a quarter race. Of course, Foolish pleasure went on to win.

Overnight surgery to save Ruffian's leg was successful, but the horse on coming out of the anesthesia couldn't stand being in a cast. She thrashed her leg against the stall, further injuring herself, and leading to her being put down. Nothing further could be done. 

I wasn't at the track that day, and I don't remember if the race was even televised. It probably was, because even then feature races were carried on the local Channel 9.

I remember hearing about the race and the breakdown as it happened, and I remember that the sky just before the race had gotten grey and angry, threatening rain, possibly foretelling the tragedy. 

I knew they buried all of Ruffian in the infield at Belmont in a marked grave. I didn't remember it was all within two days of the tragedy. Usually, when a great horse is buried, they just buried the heart. Ruffian deserved more.

Unmentioned in the story about moving Ruffian's grave because Belmont is building a one mile synthetic track inside the inner turf course, along with other massive projects that for the second year running will not have racing come back to Belmont after Saratoga, but instead will be heading to Aqueduct for an even longer meet than usual, is that a horse named Timely Writer was also buried in the Belmont infield not far from Ruffian's grave.

Timely Writer suffered a leg injury running in the Jockey Club Gold Cup in October 1982 and had to be put down. He was buried one day after the incident, on a Sunday night, under a flag pole one half mile from the finish line. 

Timely Writer was not as famous a horse as Ruffian by any means, but did get the honor of a Belmont infield burial. My guess is he might have been moved years ago. Maybe, maybe not.

The movement of Ruffian's remains to Claiborne Farm is not a sacrilegious move, but still strikes me as certainly unexpected and leaves her recognition in New York incomplete, or even erased. Many great horses are buried at Claiborne's Marchmont Cemetery, including Secretariat, who didn't suffer any career-ending injury, but who stood stud at Claiborne, passing away at the somewhat young age of 19 from laminitis. 

We were at Belmont this year and you could see that the infield looks like they're building a major highway, with earth movers everywhere. They held the Belmont Stakes there this year, but won't be back until the place is refurbished in 2024, hopefully in time for the Belmont Stakes. We'll see.

Belmont was in need for some much needed infrastructure, creature comfort improvements, especially since NYRA is anxious to get the Breeders' Cup back again one year. We'll see.

I had heard a synthetic track was planned, but didn't know where it would be. Belmont at a mile and a half is the largest track in North America, can easily fit a one mile oval inside the second turf course. Hopefully it will be inside the inner turf course, and the inner turf won't be sacrificed. The inner turf course is 13/16 miles around.

Uses for the synthetic course? Long rumored is that all-weather Aqueduct will eventually go, and Belmont will be winterized. A synthetic one mile oval could introduce winter racing to Belmont, along with the possibility of harness racing. There hasn't been harness racing on Long Island since Roosevelt Raceway was closed decades ago.

The story in Saturday's NYT by Eduardo Medina quotes NYRA as saying of Claiborne's Marchmont Cemetery as a final resting place for Ruffian that it is a resting a place of "numerous legends of the sport,"  and a location that "will dramatically expand public access to her gravesite in contrast to Belmont Park, where Ruffian's site was clearly visible from the grandstand but inaccessible to fans."

Well, if they start to allow infield access, then her gravesite wouldn't be "inaccessible to fans," would it? And what's wrong with seeing her gravesite from the stands where perhaps 55,000 or more will watch the Belmont Stakes?

I don't know if all the plans are finalized, and that perhaps a statue of Ruffian is planned for somewhere on the grounds at Belmont. Goodness knows, statues of all kind abound at ball parks and at race tracks. I remember an old photo of a stuffed Phar Lap, the great Australian horse, that was on display in the paddock at Belmont for a while.

But if Ruffian's remains were disturbed for a harness track, then listen to the some more of the Clancy Brothers' lyrics.

"What's the sense of having a religion?
If when you're dead you cannot get some peace.
'Cause some society chap wants a pipeline to his privy,
And moves you from your place of rest and peace..."

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