Alydar
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Alydar, a chestnut colt born at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 23, 1975 – died at Calumet Farm on November 15, 1990, was an American thoroughbred race horse who was most famous for finishing a close second to Affirmed in all three races of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
Trained by John Veitch, and ridden by jockey Jorge Velasquez, in 1978 Alydar dueled with Affirmed in all three legs of the Triple Crown, losing to his arch rival by a combined total of less than two lengths. The 1978 Belmont Stakes, the third and final leg of the series, is considered by many as one of the most exciting races in the history of the sport. In that race, Alydar and Affirmed dueled side by side from the middle of the far turn all the way to the wire, with Affirmed barely holding on to win by a head to claim the Triple Crown.
In his career, Alydar won 14 of 26 starts, finishing second 9 times and third once. He earned purses totalling $957,195. Alydar raced against Affirmed ten times in his career, winning three times. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1989.
Alydar was a major success as a stallion. His offspring include Alysheba, winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and the Breeders' Cup Classic, plus others such as Easy Goer, Turkoman, Strike the Gold, Criminal Type, Althea, and Miss Oceana.
On November 13, 1990, Alydar shattered his right hind leg in his stall at Calumet Farms in Lexington, Kentucky. Emergency surgery was performed the next day in an attempt to repair the injury, but the leg broke again. On November 15, Alydar was put to death by lethal injection. Some have questioned the circumstances leading up to Alydar's sudden leg injury.
In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Alydar was ranked #27.
External Links:
- Quicktime of stretch run of 1978 Belmont Stakes from NYRA (http://cnnsi.com/more/horseracing/1999/belmont/news/1999/06/04/triple_crown_videos/affirmed1978.mov)
- Alydar's profile at the NMR Hall of Fame (http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=10)
- A photo and short bio of Alydar at The International Museum of the Horse (http://www.imh.org/imh/cal/cal_hors.html)
- Alydar's Pedigree and career details (http://upd.letitride.com/getcomment.asp?id=849)
- Many photos of Alydar in action (http://www.thoroughbredmemories.com/gallerysearch.asp?Keyword=alydar)
- Affirmed vs. Alydar (http://horseracing.about.com/library/weekly/aa070900a.htm)
- "The Killing of Alydar" Skip Hollandsworth's award winning Texas Monthly article regarding J.T. Lundy's involvement in the death of the great racehorse. (http://web.archive.org/web/20021213191905/www.texasmonthly.com/mag/issues/2001-06-01/feature4.php)