Match races have been used since horse racing began to test who truly had the best and fleetest animal. Sadly, the last nationally publicized match race ended in tragedy and horse racing has not attempted it since. Should Ruffian’s racetrack horror be the reason that today’s racing no longer utilizes match races? Were they ever really a good idea to begin with?

Seabiscuit’s famed match with Triple Crown champ War Admiral was the epitome in its day of what was so great about match races and horse racing in general. Another rags to riches match race involved Alsab when he defeated Triple Crown champ Whirlaway by a nose in their match race in 1942. Though Alsab and Seabiscuit prevailed, history still regards those they defeated in a higher regard, so what do match races prove exactly? Nashua beat Swaps in a match race, but Swaps was not 100% that day and even Nashua’s jockey said years later, that he doubted his horse would ever have defeated a healthy Swaps.

The 1975 Great Match Race was a terrible idea, and it illustrated the beast in the ring nowadays is a much more fragile being. Horses in the good old days could run two or three times a month, run for years, and start more than ten times. By the time the 70s rolled around, horses raced once a month, for two years, maybe three and barely made more than twenty starts in their entire career. Breakdowns were rare on the national stage until the late sixties. Ruffian changed all that and still people who witnessed that race get a little queasy thinking about another match race.

A good horse race involves many horses, and jockeys must use strategy and every ounce of luck in order to get their horse home in front. Some horses are speed horses and generally these horses fair better in match races. Some horses creep up during the middle stages of a race, and some like to come from way back of the pack. On any given day any of these styles can prove victorious, if it is not in a match race. Match races often take a horse’s natural style away from them for there is only one way to win them.

Today’s horse, being fragile, but always highly competitive will literally run themselves into the ground to win. Ruffian continued to run for 150 feet on three legs, erasing any chance she had of surviving the initial injury.

The sport does not need to replay that race with Big Brown and Curlin. Both horses are good for the sport and have many loyal fans. If the Clark Handicap were to draw a full field and both horses showed up, great, but a match race has disaster written all over it. The sport gave up match races a long time ago, and with horses as fragile as Big Brown and his sire and grandsire before him, it is an avenue best not revisited.