During two short seasons at the track, Ruffian was hailed as the greatest thoroughbred filly of all time. Unbeaten in her first ten starts, she shattered one record after another, dazzling crowds with both her beauty and her brilliant speed. Then tragedy struck on the afternoon of July 6, 1975 in the middle of a match race at Belmont Park, and it would become one of the darkest days of the sport. Beginning with Ruffian's youth in Kentucky, Jane Schwartz follows this champion at every stage of her career and through the agony of her final hours, exploring the politics and personalities that came together to shape this extraordinary filly's fate.