What happened to Alydar at 1:19? He is obviously suddenly checked back..ran out of room? angled too close to the rail? clipped? That he came back at Affirmed is incredible. There is some wonderful footage of Alydar on the tribute to Northern Dancer. Magnificent horse!
The stewards determined that Affrimed deliberately cut Alydar off at that point, and that is why Alydar was later ruled as the race winner. That he was able to come back after having to pull up that way, regain his stride and make a race of it was amazing. Affirmed's handlers were so mad they refused to ever race against Alydar again.
I was an Alydar fan in 1977 and 1978, and backed the horse in all the face-offs with Affirmed. Affirmed was the better horse and proved it where it really counts, on the track in ten races. I read many comments about circumstances of Ferdinand's death (a lot of moral superiority and finger wagging), but Alydar's end was far worse, and it happened at Calumet Farm. If it were not for the late Henryk de Kwiatkowski (owner of Conquistador Cielo , among others), Calumet would have gone to ruin.
@syren345 They met a total of 10 times. Affirmed won 8, but was disqualified in the Travers. He officially beat Alydar 7-10. If you have never seen the 1978 Belmont, do yourself a huge favor, and watch it. Amazing !
Thank you so much for all series of Alydar & Affirmed matches. I'm very pleased to see legandary racings and horses. All of your postings enlarge my horizons about horse racing. Thank you again.
It was Pincay rather than Cauthen riding Affirmed. At the time people said that California (Pincay's base) was more liberal in terms of allowing horses to cut off other horses (a bit like NASCAR I think) and thus he tried to shut off Alydar and almost knocked him down. Yes, Affirmed was DQ'd. That triple crown was equisite with the Belmont probably the most exciting race in history.
I was there that day and I had a ticket on Alydar to win. I guess I had one of those feelings about that race. But it was strange indeed to collect, given how it all went down.
Derk- yep, I agree. Tremendous performance after essentially stopping midway... He came back after being cut and bleeding all the way to the finish. No wonder Affirmed's handlers declined to race against him again. Alydar would have smoked him that day. Have always wished that horse would have been better appreciated. Perhaps he is, but, just read the article "The Killing of Alydar". Pretty horrifying. I never knew. Shameful end for such a great horse. RIP Alydar. And, go AfleetA
I have a filly with Alydar being the grandsire on the topside with Affirmed on the dam's side. At present she has won her first two starts, going wire to wire both times, the last out was at a mile! Long live these two great bloodlines!........"Jagar"
Affirmed didn't beat him every time. Alydar did beat him twice on the track (the 1977 Great American Stakes and Champagne Stakes), plus this race. We'll never know, but in the opinion of most people who were there, Alydar was going to win the '78 Travers if he hadn't been fouled.
Tough to really decipher who was the better horse as they were both great in my opinion. As for this race, there was no reason for Pincay to impede but he did and Alydar showed guts after losing a ton of ground. And yea, Affirmed was pretty much a dud at stud where as Alydar sired much better.
its a real shame Rachel Alexandra's camp wont put her in the feild with Zenyatta. looking back at the 70's scene in racing there was so much intrigue with the rivalries like Alydar and Affirmed, plus Sham and Secretariat. just wish we could get a chance to see R.A. and Zen meet up cuz it would really be something to watch
Nobody would have corraled Affirmed after letting him lope along at 1:11:3. Alydar was a great horse (who had demolished older horses in the Whitney a few weeks before this) but he never would have beaten Affirmed this day. Even if Pincay didn't err, The finish would have been the same. They were two special horses and I'm happy to have watched their duels. If I recall correctly, Alydar suffered injuries later in 1978 and was never the same. Affirmed just got even greater as a four year old.
