Horse Racing Fantasy Community

The greatest racing rivalry of all-time!

With a possile showdown looming in the Breeders' Cup Classic between Curlin and Big Brown it occured to me that one can't think of rivalries without thinking of Affirmed and his shadow, the one and only Alydar. No doubt the first thing that comes to mind is their all-out battle to the wire in the 1978 Belmont, Affirmed reaching for the Triple Crown, Alydar driving for the denial, but many people forget that these two met in ten horse races, a whopping six as 2 year-olds! Visit this channel to see those races http://www.youtube.com/user/cf1970 You certainly don't see any of today's juvenile horse racing champs racing six times, let alone six times against another horse. Affirmed was the only reason Alydar didn't get any Eclipse awards, but he was a very worthy adversary; he finished 2nd to Affirmed seven times (Affirmed was DQ'd in the Travers and Alydar awarded 1st), beating him twice. His record in 26 starts was 14 wins, 7 Places, 1 Show. Make the 6 official 2nd's to Affirmed wins and all of a sudden we're talking about 20 wins in 26 starts, and his record in non-Affirmed races was 11 wins in 16 races.

As for Affirmed, he came back in '79 and won Race Horse of the Year again, finishing with a record of 22-5-1 in 29 starts. Historically, these two are joined at the hip. Accordingly, we've decided to show you ALL 3 of their great horse racing battles during the 1978 Triple Crown.

The 1978 Kentucky Derby with Dave Johnson on the call. Watch the strong closing move Alydar makes, but Affirmed is just too strong:

1978 Preakness, not sure of the announcer, maybe Bob Weems? This time Alydar moves earlier and closes the gap.

Finally, here's the 1978 Belmont, the last Triple Crown horse race called by the great Chic Anderson. This time Velasquez rates Affirmed up until the 5/8th's pole, and from that point on it's a duel for the ages, and because of these horses' history, the fact that the Triple Crown was on the line, and the courage shown by both, I rank this as the greatest finish in Triple Crown history. Disagree? Well then let's hear it, but watch this first!

Watchin' all three races in succession certainly gets the blood pumping, doesn't it? Now, let's all cross our fingers and hope that A) Curlin likes the Pro-Ride synthetic surface at Santa Anita and is entered in the Classic, and B) that if they do race against each other it's a great battle!

You have the chance to ride either of these two incredible race horses in our free online simulation horse racing game. If you ride Alydar in a repeat of the 1978 Kentucky Derby perhaps you would want to move him earlier, so that his late charge wasn't too late. That's your option in our horse racing game, as is deciding to ride Affirmed instead, or you can also ride Curlin or Big Brown! Don't forget that you make the decisions in our horse racing game; that's what makes it so fun!