With the Belmont Stakes fresh in our memories, it seems appropriate to remember perhaps the greatest Belmont and the greatest Triple Crown of all time: Florida's greatest champion, Affirmed, versus his marvelous rival Alydar Other Triple Crown winners may have done the job in more spectacular fashion, but none ever faced a classier or more determined opponent throughout the series than did Affirmed.
Foaled on February 21, 1975, Affirmed came into the world at Harbor View Farm near Ocala, Florida, which had also bred and raced his sire Exclusive Native. A 1965 son of the brilliant Raise a Native and the excellent broodmare Exclusive, Exclusive Native won the Sanford Stakes at two and the Arlington Classic at three in a career shortened by injury. He exceeded expectations as a stallion as he led the American general sire list in both 1978 and 1979. Affirmed was by far his best runner, but Exclusive Native also holds a special place in racing history as the sire of champion filly Genuine Risk, only the second female Thoroughbred to win the Kentucky Derby.
Won't Tell You, the dam of Affirmed, had far less in the way of credentials than did Exclusive Native, who had already proven both a good runner and a good sire by the time Won't Tell You was sent to him in 1974. Although the mare had proved reasonably durable as a runner, winning five of her twenty-three starts, she never rose above the status of a low-level allowance horse and raced mostly in claimers. All of her five foals prior to Affirmed were winners but none were above allowance class.
Affirmed did not really look like a potential champion at first. He was a rather slight individual who could easily have been taken for a filly at a casual glance when he was sent to trainer Laz Barrera. His first start was in a Belmont maiden special weight over five and one-half furlongs on May 24, 1977. He went off at odds of 14.30-to-one - the longest of his entire career - but won by four and one-half lengths while ridden out. Affirmed would never be taken so lightly by anyone again.
The colt's second start came in the June 15 Youthful Stakes, in which he met up with Alydar for the first time. It was the first start for the latter colt and the experience gap showed; while Affirmed stalked the early pace until mid-stretch and then drew off to win, Alydar broke slowly and was trapped behind horses coming out of the turn, ending up fifth. The nearly five-length margin between Affirmed and Alydar was the widest that would ever separate the pair, and Alydar was able to reverse the verdict in Great American Stakes on July 6. With the help of a five-pound weight break, Alydar ran Affirmed down in the stretch, winning by three and one-half lengths.
While Alydar remained in the East (his next major target was the grade I Sapling Stakes at Monmouth, which he won), Affirmed made the first of his many cross-country trips, going to Hollywood Park in California for the Hollywood Juvenile Championship (gr. II), which ran in two divisions due to the number of entries. Affirmed drew into the first division and won it by seven lengths over He's Dewan and Esops Foibles. He then headed back to New York for the Sanford Stakes (gr. II) and won that with sensational young jockey Steve Cauthen aboard for the first time. Cauthen would become the colt's regular pilot through Affirmed's three-year-old season.
The Sanford victory set Affirmed up for the Hopeful Stakes on August 27, in which he met Alydar for the third time. This race was much closer than the colts' previous two meetings, with Affirmed the winner by a slowly widening half length at the finish. His time of 1:15-2/5 was a new stakes record for the six and one-half furlong race. Then came the Futurity Stakes (gr. I) on September 10. From the half-mile marker to the finish, the two colts battled furiously to the wire. At the end it was Affirmed by a desperate nose. The time for the seven furlongs was a very quick 1:21-3/5.
Two such battles would probably have burned out ordinary colts, but both Affirmed and Alydar were far from ordinary. The pair clashed again in the Champagne Stakes (gr. I) on October 15. Alydar was always at his best against Affirmed when he could make a single strong run to get by him, and that was what happened in the Champagne; Alydar surged ahead of Affirmed in the last hundred yards to win by a length and a quarter.
Then came the October 29 Laurel Futurity (gr. I) and with it the race for the juvenile championship. This time, the race set up in Affirmed's favor, with Alydar forced to split horses to reach the front. Once again, the pair battled down the stretch, neither yielding, and the decision went to Affirmed by a slowly shrinking neck. On the basis of his four-to-two margin in his tilts with Alydar - and doubtless helped by Alydar's upset loss to Believe It in the Remsen Stakes a month later - Affirmed won both the Eclipse Award as the divisional champion and the highweight position on the Experimental Free Handicap. He was weighted at 126, with Alydar and Believe It both one pound below him at 125. The one-pound difference between Affirmed and Alydar accurately captured their merits with respect to each other, but as time would prove, the weights were a gross underestimate of the superiority of the top pair to the rest of the crop.
The Laurel Futurity was the last race of Affirmed's juvenile season, and he was given some time to grow and develop before making his three-year-old debut in a six and one-half allowance race on March 8, 1978, at Santa Anita. He won easily by five lengths against a badly outclassed field. Ten days later, he won the San Felipe Stakes (gr. II) over the San Vicente Stakes (gr. III) winner, Chance Dancer, by two lengths.
Laffit Pincay Jr. was subbing for a suspended Steve Cauthen in the April 2 Santa Anita Derby (gr. I). It mattered nothing to Affirmed, who probably would have won carrying anything short of a baby elephant, for he came home laughing by eight lengths. Two weeks later, with Cauthen back in the saddle, he was workmanlike but not spectacular with a two-length win in the Hollywood Derby (gr. I).
In the meantime, Alydar had dominated the Eastern classic hopefuls, finishing off his pre-Derby campaign with a thirteen-length blowout in the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I). That performance made Alydar a 6-5 favorite in the Kentucky Derby, with Affirmed at 9-5. Once again, however, Affirmed reversed the odds, easily containing Alydar's too-late charge to win by a length and a half. The final time was a solid 2:01-1/5. It was Affirmed's easiest victory over Alydar since the colts' first encounter in the Youthful Stakes.
Both horses moved on to Pimlico. This time Affirmed was a slight favorite, and the crowd had things pegged about right. Alydar was much closer to the pace than he had been in the Derby and came after Affirmed at the top of the stretch. From there on out, both colts surged at each other repeatedly, with Affirmed in front by a neck at the end. The victory made Affirmed the youngest horse ever to pass the $1 million mark in earnings.
Only five horses entered the starting gate for the 110th Belmont, and three of them did not matter except as footnotes to racing history. (For the record, they were Darby Creek Road, Noon Time Spender, and Judge Angelucci.) Affirmed and Alydar broke side by side from positions three and two, respectively, but Cauthen sent Affirmed up to take the early lead and the inside path. Jorge Velasquez on Alydar let his colt settle into stride for the first three furlongs but then moved, knowing that to let Afirmed have thins all his own way on a slow pace would be suicidal. The two colts hit the half-mile mark together - and the battle of the ages was on.
For a full mile, Affirmed and Alydar went after each other like two evenly matched heavyweight fighters, neither yielding an inch. As the crowd roared, Affirmed clung grimly to the narrowest of leads at the mile and stretch calls; then, in deep stretch, Alydar shoved his head in front. Calling on every reserve, Affirmed wrested back the lost ground and a few inches more - just enough - and held Alydar's last desperate surge safe to win by a head.
Both colts had turned in one of the greatest performances of all time, but only one could wear the blanket of carnations. Affirmed stood alone in the winner's circle, flanks heaving; Alydar went back to the barn with the bittersweet glory of becoming the first horse to finish second in all three Triple Crown races. The total difference between the two colts for all three races had been less than two lengths, and the final difference in the Belmont itself was the unyielding will of Affirmed, who simply would not be beaten.
Affirmed went on to be champion three-year-old male, though his last meeting with Alydar proved anticlimactic. Coming into the final turn in the Travers Stakes (gr. I), Alydar moved strongly up the inside and was actually lapped on Affirmed when Laffit Pincay Jr. cut over to the rail sharply with Affirmed. The colts made contact and Alydar had to pull up sharply before regrouping to finish second. No one was really surprised when the “Inquiry” light went up on the tote boar, and there was sadness but not shock when Affirmed was disqualified for impeding Alydar. No rematch would be possible; on September 11, five days before the Marlboro Cup in which both colts were scheduled to appear, Alydar showed signs of lameness while cooling out from a workout. X-rays revealed a fracture on the wing of the colt's left fron coffin bone, ending Alydar's season. The following year, Alydar would struggle through a disappointing season during which he never seemed one hundred percent before another injury ended his career for good.
Despite two finishes behind Seattle Slew during the fall season, Affirmed was named Horse of the Year in 1978. He would repeat at four; after losing his first two starts of the season, he won five straight grade I races while carrying up to 132 pounds. His season finale was the Jockey Club Gold Cup, in which he defeated champion three-year-old male Spectacular Bid by three-quarters of a length. The prize money for first and second place made Affirmed and Spectacular Bid the first two horses to earn more than a million dollars in a single season of racing, with Affirmed reaching that mark first by less than one-fifth of a second.
Affirmed left racing with twenty-two wins from twenty-nine starts; he also had five seconds and one third. He had won divisional championships each year he raced along with two Horse of the Year titles and had earned $2,393,818. One year after his retirement, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, where his great rival Alydar would join him in 1989.
Retired to Spendthrift Farm, Affirmed proved a good and consistent sire whose offspring often showed a surprising bent for turf racing. His most noted runners in North America were two-time champion grass mare Flawlessly and the 1993 Canadian Triple Crown winner Peteski, while he was represented abroad by the 1988 Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-I) winner Trusted Partner, 1987 French champion three-year-old filly Bint Pasha, and 1991 Irish champion older male Zoman. None of his sons proved able to carry on as sires, but Affirmed's daughters have earned him the reputation of a good broodmare sire.
Forced to move from Spendthrift Farm and then Calumet Farm by the financial woes of both farms, Affirmed spent the last decade of his life at Jonabell Farm. He was humanely destroyed on January 12, 2001, and was buried at Jonabell.
Photo by Barbara Livingstone
