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Ruthless
“Far and away the best filly of the 1860s,” in the opinion of handicapper and historian Walter Vosburgh, Ruthless was one of the “Barbarous Battalion,” a cluster of stakes-winning fillies out of the mare Barbarity that included Relentless, Remorseless, Regardless, and Merciless. In common with her siblings, she was bred by Francis Morris near Westchester, New York and carried his all-scarlet silks throughout her racing career. The tall, well-developed bay filly entered training with Bill Brown and made her first start on July 26, 1866, in the one-mile Saratoga Stakes, in which she ran second to Red Wing. Two days later, Ruthless broke her maiden in an overnight event with Red Wing in the beaten field. Ruthless next won the inaugural Nursery Stakes, run at one mile at the new Jerome Park; the race would remain a major event on the two-year-old calendar until its discontinuation in 1936, 67 runnings later. Nine days later, Ruthless concluded her juvenile campaign with a second to her stablemate Monday in the nine-furlong Trial Stakes, finishing the season with two wins and two seconds from four starts and earnings of $2,900. At three, Ruthless was trained by A. J. Minor and was ridden by Gilbert Patrick or Gilpatrick, the foremost jockey of his day and previously the regular pilot for both the mighty Boston and his great son Lexington. The filly made her first start on May 23, 1867, at Jerome Park won the six-furlong Spring Stakes. Apparently that was just a warmup, for the next day she was back to win a ten-furlong purse race. She waited until June 4 for her next start, the Jersey Derby, and ran second to Monday in the one and one-half mile test. Two weeks later she won the inaugural Belmont Stakes over three hapless male rivals. The race was intended to mirror the Epsom Derby, but was originally run at one and five-eighths miles because the physical layout at Jerome Park did not permit the start of a one and one-half mile race to be seen from the grandstand. Ruthless covered the distance in 3:05 and took down a winner’s purse of $1850. Unfortunately, the race was marred by the breakdown of Monday, although he survived to go to stud. Seven weeks later, Ruthless re-emerged at Saratoga to win the 1867 Travers Stakes, then at one and three-quarters miles. She faced only two rivals for the Travers and only two for the Sequel Stakes five days later, winning easily once again. In the Jersey St. Leger over two and one-quarter miles, however, she proved unable to give weight and a beating to De Courcey, a colt she had beaten on four previous occasions. That was Ruthless’ last race. The accounts vary as to whether she was injured in training during the fall or in the spring of her four-year-old year, but whenever it happened, she struck herself and was unable to be trained further. She ended her career with seven wins and four seconds from eleven starts for earnings of $11,000. She was bred to Monday to produce Battle-Axe as her first foal. He won the 1873 Kentucky Stakes at Saratoga, but Ruthless produced no other foals to race. Her 1872 colt by Leamington, Tomahawk, never ran, and in 1873 she slipped twins by Kentucky. Bred to her own sire *Eclipse in 1874, in 1875 she produced a deformed colt that could not stand and had to be destroyed. Ruthless met one of the strangest fates ever accorded to a top Thoroughbred when she was accidentally shot by a hunter in late 1876 while in her paddock. She died five weeks later in November. Nearly a century after her death, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1875. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
