The unmistakable apprehension that accompanies the dawn of every Derby Day brought with it a unique, electric urgency on May 6, 1978. A rivalry that developed between the best two-year-olds of 1977, a season that unfolded in the long shadow of the still- undefeated Seattle Slew’s domi- nance of the Triple Crown, would be reignited in full bloom that afternoon in the 104th Kentucky Derby. As if two great forces moved on course toward an inevitably explosive collision, the Derby- morning tension was noticeably more dense than usual.
“I’m glad they haven’t met yet this year,” said John Veitch who trained one of the three-year-old heavyweights of a season that saw only two. It makes the Derby all the more exciting.
Affirmed, Post-race in the Winner’s Circle
Thirty years ago, a halcyon decade during which Secretariat and Seattle Slew would leave indelible marks on the history of the Triple Crown and Cannonero II, Riva Ridge, Bold Forbes and Spectacular Bid would fall valiantly a race short of the grail after having won the Derby, two chestnut three-year-olds would resume in the shadow of the Twin Spires what was already a compelling rivalry and take it another stride toward the realm of legend. There had been no rivalry as long nor as hair-raising as that one from which Affirmed and Alydar would emerge from the racing season of 1978 forever joined in the sport’s collective consciousness. There has been none since. Nor, in three decades, has there been another winner of the Triple Crown.
Steve Cauthen with the Blanket of Roses
Though they had taken different paths to Churchill Downs that spring, they were familiar to one another, veterans of battles waged at Belmont Park, Saratoga and Laurel. The electricity they generated in those races had been amplified by six months during which they had repaired to neutral corners, one dominant in the East, the other in the West. The Derby was not only the test that would reunite and perhaps define the inseparable chestnut colts, it was the most anticipated resumption of an established rivalry in memory. “This is no pickin’ chicken party,” Affirmed’s trainer, Laz Barrera said that morning. “Believe It should run good and I think that Darby Creek Road might be underrated. Sensitive Prince has won all six of his starts and because Allen Jerkens trains him, the horse must be respected. But I think Affirmed has to beat Alydar and it could be as simple as that.”
It was.
The cast of characters attached to Affirmed and Alydar meshed perfectly, the supporting cast in what would develop into the most hard-fought series of races in Triple Crown history and conclude with the coronation of the 11th three-year-old since 1919 capable of sweeping the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. The length-and -a-half that separated Affirmed from the furiously rallying Alydar in the Derby would shrink to a neck two weeks later at Pimlico and a head at the end of 12 furlongs in the Belmont Stakes and among those on the edges of countless seats during those five weeks were a colorful and accomplished cadre of humans blessed with the good fortune to have in their lives two such animals whose fateful paths would cross in 1977 and on in the Derby of the following spring become one.
Alydar was steeped in Bluegrass, bred by Calumet Farm, then owned by Admiral and Mrs. Eugene Markey, and raced beneath the revered Devil’s red and blue silks carried by Whirlaway and Citation to triumphs in the Derby and subsequently the Triple Crown. He was trained by Veitch, Kentucky-born son of Hall of Fame trainer Sylvester Veitch, who would in the summer of 2007 follow his father into that fraternity.
Affirmed
Affirmed, conceived in Kentucky, was foaled in Florida, and raced in the pink, black and white silks unmistakably connected to Harbor View Farm and the Wolfsons, Louis, the self-made industrialist, financier and breeder, who was stranger to neither controversy nor the limelight, and his wife, Patrice, daughter of Hall of Fame trainer Hirsch Jacobs. The late, Cuban-born Barrera trained Bold Forbes, winner of the Derby and Belmont Stakes two years before he brought Affirmed to meet his destiny, would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.
The last horse to win the Triple Crown and the horse to which he will be forever connected in legend were also closely related. Alydar was by Raise a Native, Affirmed by Raise a Native’s son, Exclusive Native. Raise a Native and Exclusive Native both raced in Wolfson’s colors. Both, then, were descendent from Native Dancer, the sire of Raise a Native, who was the first three-year-old hero of the television age and winner of 21 of 22 races, defeated only in the Kentucky Derby of 1953.
Affirmed Takes Control Earlyin Kentucky Derby 104
Both riders at the center of the maelstrom were destined for eventual enshrinement in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Jorge Velasquez, the Panamanian veteran who rode Alydar, was a fixture in racing’s most important events. In contrast, Steve Cauthen, 18, was at the time most often described by the word, “wunderkind,” which if seldom used was succinctly accurate – a child in possession of a master’s skill.
Two hours after Affirmed held safe Alydar’s rally to win the Derby, the late Bill Leggett, of Sports Illustrated, found Barrera seated in the director’s room reflecting upon what he had just witnessed.
“People say that Steve Cauthen is 18 years old,” Barrera began. “For a while, I believed things like that. But the more I watch him ride, the more I start to think other things. He must be at least 100 years old and maybe he don’t come from Walton, Kentucky at all. One night, when all the racing world was sleeping, a small flying saucer landed out in the desert somewhere and he got off. He came to the United States from wherever it was with the coolness of Georgie Woolf, the old iceman. And the talent of the master, Eddie Arcaro. And there was some Shoemaker, too.
“Stevie stands by the spaceship and waits three minutes. Horses come from everywhere toward the spaceship. They come out of California and Chicago and New York and they line up and say, ‘Stevie, come be my jockey.” Stevie doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, then waves his hand for silence. ‘Horses,’ he says, ‘I will get to you all eventually. Be patient. I am looking for a special horse, one that can win the Kentucky Derby. You there, big chestnut horse, what is your name?’ This horse said, ‘Affirmed,’ and Stevie says, ‘Affirmed, I choose you to be my first Derby winner. We will win in 1978 before a huge crowd and I will put up a ride that people will talk about for years to come.’ And, of course, Stevie did it”.
Though Affirmed won the race in which Alydar made his career debut in June, 1977, when the racing world was transfixed upon Seattle Slew’s just completed Triple Crown, the rivalry would not begin to take shape until Alydar defeated Affirmed in the Great American Stakes at Belmont Park. Affirmed was then sent to California for the Hollywood Juvenile, which he won easily, and returned to Saratoga, where he won the Sanford.
Alydar, meanwhile, remained in New York for the Tremont and traveled to nearby Monmouth Park for the Sapling. He won both. Perhaps the greatest equine rivalry of all time began building momentum at Saratoga, where Affirmed defeated Alydar by a half-length in the Hopeful Stakes, then returned to Belmont and beat the Calumet colt again in the Futurity. After their first meeting, in which Alydar finished fifth, no other horse would finish better than third in any race in which both were entered.
That autumn, Alydar turned the tables at Belmont, defeating Affirmed in the Champagne Stakes then lost a neck decision to his rival in the Laurel Futurity, which tilted the two-year-old championship in favor of the Harbor View colt after Alydar was upset by Believe It in the Remsen at Aqueduct. Neither would be defeated at age three before reaching Louisville. Barrera took Affirmed to California, where he won an allowance race, the San Felipe, Santa Anita Derby and Hollywood Derby before being shipped to Churchill Downs. Veitch wintered at Hialeah Park, in Florida, where Alydar won an allowance race, the Flamingo Stakes and Florida Derby before moving on to Keeneland to win the Blue Grass, run at the time ten days in advance of the Derby.
America’s Last Triple Crown Winner Breaksfrom the Gate in the 1978 Kentucky Derby
When they arrived at the starting gate in Louisville, 10 furlongs from history, Alydar was the 6-5 favorite, the last time he would enjoy that distinction when facing Affirmed.
The rivalry only gained dramatic momentum after the Derby as Affirmed swept the Triple Crown with another white knuckle survival of Alydar’s late run in the Preakness and prevailed in a breathless pitched battle in the Belmont Stakes in which they ran head-to-head for almost a mile after which Cauthen would say: “It would have broken the hearts of some horses, but Alydar kept trying. “Jorge set his horse down, I set mine down. Mine won.”
Their rivalry transcended the sport’s most important races and lives on, embedded in racing’s collective memory. Affirmed finished in front of Alydar in eight of their 10 meetings, though the Calumet colt was placed first in the Travers Stakes in the summer of 1978, their last meeting, after the stewards determined that Affirmed, who was ridden that day by Laffite Pincay Jr., was guilty of interference on the stretch turn. The most comfortable margin of victory in nine of those 10 races, the first being the exception, was the 1 ½ lengths by which Affirmed won the Derby.
Racing’s Most Sought After and ElusiveTrophy Under the Historic Twin Spires
Alydar
Alydar, injured, would be retired soon after the Travers. Affirmed would be defeated by Seattle Slew in the Marlboro Cup that year, the only meeting of Triple Crown winners in history, and conclude a magnificent career with seven consecutive victories as a four-year-old in 1979, defeating the Derby and Preakness winner, Spectacular Bid, to clinch a second Horse of the Year title. Ultimately, Affirmed and Alydar would reside in retirement in adjacent stalls at Calumet Farm.
The last winner of the Triple Crown can still be appreciated fully in the observations of those who lived through the five weeks that began at Churchill Downs and concluded at Belmont Park – people who realized fully the unique historical importance of what was unfolding before their eyes..
“I’ve seen dawn come up over a lot of racetracks,” the late, great trainer Woody Stephens told Sports Illustrated after the Belmont. “People will tell you about the great races between Citation and Noor out in California in the early 1950s and the race between Ridan and Jaipur in the Travers at Saratoga in 1962. Great races.
But Affirmed and Alydar in the Belmont? Probably the best horse race that’s ever been run.
I’ll look at it again and again, anytime I’m fortunate enough to get the chance. I’ll raise a glass to them while I’m watching the replays and, damn, I’ll root - come on Affirmed, come on Alydar. Come on Cauthen, come on Velasquez. Whatever it is that these two horses have cannot be bought or manufactured. It’s the greatest act horse racing has ever seen.”
