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[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Someday Silent

But now we go back to the "mystique" factor that another post brought up. Ruffian is widely upheld as the "greatest" filly of all time, but when one considers her overall competition...who did she beat? She never faced older mares, nor did she successfully compete against males. She raced outside of New York exactly once, at Monmouth. If you consider the standards that other fillies have to meet in order to be considered great, Ruffian doesn't stack up. Beholder, Serena's Song, Busher, Rachel Alexandra, Winning Colors, Zenyatta, Azeri, Swiss Skydiver, Miesque, Goldikova, Genuine Risk, Dahlia, Regret, Tepin, Safely Kept, Go For Wand, Ta Wee, and about three dozen others are superior.

This is right. And I feel bad about it, because of course Ruffian almost certainly WOULD have run some more races against top competition (that was the plan) when the tragedy happened.

But nonetheless, you can't compare Ruffian to mares who actually had complete careers.