Affirmed: The Last Triple Crown Winner

With the recent release of the movie Secretariat, interest in the Triple Crown has been renewed, especially the magic decade of the 1970s in American horse racing. Affirmed and Alydar, who battled neck and neck in 1977 and 1978 in their 2 and 3-year-old seasons, remains the greatest Thoroughbred rivalry ever seen. Lou Sahadi specializes in writing about sports history and keeping the reader's interest from cover to cover, and he clearly succeeds here, aided by an already exciting story that just needed to be told by such a master of his craft. His writing style brings the excitement of the 1978 Triple Crown to life.

In his latest book, Florida-based sports author Lou Sahadi tackles the sport of horse racing for the first time, thoroughly covering 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed, Alydar, and their human connections, who came from completely different walks of life to make history. Sahadi setst he stage for the 1978 Triple Crown, through extensive research of news stories and hours of personal interviews. He describes each of the head-to-head matchups starting with the 1977 Youthful at Belmont Park. Although Alydar and his connections were as blue-blooded as they come, bred and raced by the once-powerful Calumet Farm and trained by John Veitch, he was also seen as a savior for his owners, as Calumet sought to regain past glory as its owners, Gene and Lucille Markey, were in their 80's and in poor health. Laz Barrera showed great confidence sticking with the then 17-year-old Cauthen to ride Affirmed, while John Veitch went with cagey veteran Jorge Velasquez for Alydar.

Giving each of the Trple Crown races its own chapter, Sahadi covers the lead-up, media hype, the excitement of raceday, and the aftermath. Through his narrative, the reader can picture what it was like watching Affirmed and Alydar hook up the stretch as they did so many times. He made sure that Barrera was given his due, as in those days Cauthen was the media darling and sadly, the trainer was often forgotten, and was even snubbed after the Preakness win, the press box elevator leaving him behind as reporters and officials ushered the jockey up for the post-race interviews. The 1978 Belmont Stakes, won by Affirmed by a head after battling the entire final quarter mile, is considered one of the greatest stretch runs of all time, and Sahadi did that great race justice by his description.

The post-Triple Crown life of Affirmed was covered relatively briefly. The Travers Stakes at Saratoga, which would be the last time the pair entered the starting gate together, was a low point in the rivalry when new jockey Laffit Pincay Jr., replacing the injured Cauthen, interfered with Alydar and was disqualified from first to second. On his return to riding, Cauthen suffered a terrible slump, highlighted by his saddle slipping during the Jockey Club Gold Cup, leading to the only out-of-the-money finish in Affirmed 29-race career. His slump and his battles with weight led to Cauthen accepting a contract to ride in Europe, handing the Affirmed assignment to Pincay. Affirmed would win his last 5 starts including the 1979 Jockey Club Gold Cup to be named Horse of the Year two years in a row.

With this work, Sahadi has successfully covered horse racing and has done justice to Affirmed and Alydar, as well as their human connections and many fans, forever connected in history as the combatants of the greatest rivalry ever seen on the American turf. Highly recommended for all fans of racing history, as well as to fans of American sports history, as the 1970's truly were the golden age of horse racing.