THE RIVALRY : On the Track, Affirmed and Alydar Usually Finished in That Order in Racing’s Greatest Sustained Duel; Now the Order Is Reversed

LEXINGTON, Ky. —  Thirteen miles of rolling Kentucky bluegrass separate Alydar’s spacious paddock at Calumet Farm from the fenced enclosure in which Affirmed resides at Spendthrift Farm. They were never that far apart in their racing days.

Back then, during 10 explosive confrontations on the race track in 1977-1978, the two horses were virtually inseparable.

No race better typified their rivalry than the 1978 Belmont Stakes, where a victory would allow Affirmed to become the 11th horse to sweep the Triple Crown series. He and Alydar locked up on the backstretch, and for the last half of the 1 1/2 miles they looked like something out of Greek mythology, a two-headed, eight-legged horse, both colts unyielding as they strained toward the finish line.

Affirmed, after losing the lead by an almost imperceptible margin in midstretch, responded to Steve Cauthen’s left-handed whipping--the first time the 18-year-old jockey had ever hit the colt from that side--and came back along the rail at Alydar, winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown by a head. Cauthen raised his left hand in exultation, and a crowd of 64,000 roared. From a competitive standpoint, there has never been a better Belmont. Many say that there has never been a better horse race.

Poor Alydar, what he got most of the time was a taunt and a tease. He would get close to Affirmed, but would hardly ever win. Affirmed was faster in eight of their 10 meetings and Alydar ran first in two, although one of Affirmed’s wins, the 1978 Travers Stakes, was reversed by the track stewards, a disqualification that sent both sides into the night at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with the feeling that they had been short-changed.

Rarely in racing have two extraordinary horses of the same generation been so evenly matched, and seldom, too, has the bottom line of such a close rivalry been so paradoxically lopsided.

But now, in another life as far as thoroughbreds are concerned, the 10-year-old Alydar is getting the last horse laugh. As a stallion, he has been as successful as Affirmed has been mediocre. Among active sires ranked according to average earnings of their progeny, Alydar is second, behind Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown champion. Affirmed isn’t even ranked among the top 65 stallions on the list.

“I’m not surprised by what’s happened,” John Veitch, the trainer of Alydar, said recently at Belmont Park. “Alydar had a marvelous pedigree, especially on the female side of his family. Affirmed’s bottom line (female bloodlines) was shallow. And physically, there was no comparison between the horses. Alydar was a much more robust specimen.”

Alydar, a Calumet homebred, was sired by Raise a Native, the champion 2-year-old of 1963 who never raced beyond that season because of injuries. Raise a Native has sired almost 70 stakes winners, including the late Majestic Prince, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1969.

Alydar’s dam is Sweet Tooth, who never won a stake and earned only $90,000 racing, but who has produced Our Mims, the champion 3-year-old filly in 1977, and Sugar and Spice, a multiple stakes winner.

If Alydar and Affirmed were people, they would be related because besides Alydar, another of Raise a Native’s sons is Exclusive Native, who sired Affirmed.

Exclusive Native was a stakes winner on the track and has been a leading sire. Genuine Risk, Life’s Hope, Outstandingly and European champion Prodigo are just some of his offspring. But, his mating with Won’t Tell You in 1974, which resulted in Affirmed, was a marriage between royalty and a commoner. Won’t Tell You ran for $5,000 claiming prices, winning only five insignificant races and $21,000 in her career. She was bought by Louis Wolfson for $18,000 while she was in foal to Raise a Native in 1972.

Won’t Tell You’s first offspring turned out to be cheap claiming horses, and in 1976, the year after she foaled Affirmed, Wolfson sent the 14-year-old mare back to Kentucky, where she brought only $5,500 at a sale.

On the track, Won’t Tell You’s plebeian blood didn’t show in Affirmed, who won 22 of 29 lifetime starts, including 19 stakes. He won in both California and New York. He was the champion of his division all three years he raced and won the Horse-of-the-Year title in 1978-1979.

“Affirmed’s got to rank right up there with horses like Citation and Swaps, which were two of the best I’ve seen,” said Charlie Whittingham, who’s been training champion horses for more than 50 years. “Affirmed would have to be among the top three or four on anybody’s list. He was so durable. How many top horses can you remember that were in training as 2-year-olds and never stopped right on through their 4-year-old season?”

Laz Barrera considers Affirmed to be his best job of training. The horse won $2.3 million and was syndicated by a breeding partnership that cost $14.4 million, a record at the time. Affirmed was retired late in 1979, having won his last seven races.

Alydar won 14 of 26 starts, including 11 stakes, and earned $957,000. Throw out the 10 races with Affirmed and his lifetime record would have been 11 wins in 16 races. Training for the Marlboro Cup in the fall of 1978--a race in which the older Seattle Slew would beat Affirmed by two lengths--Alydar broke a coffin bone and didn’t return to action until a year later, winning only a minor stake as a 4-year-old.

The breeding cognoscenti sensed from the beginning that Alydar’s progeny would be more successful than Affirmed’s. The first year their offspring were offered at auction, Alydar’s sold for an average price that almost doubled Affirmed’s. Alydar’s first 61 yearlings sold for an average price of $500,000, including two for $2.2 million apiece.

And when they’ve reached the track, many of Alydar’s sons and daughters have justified their premium prices. They bear his stamp--tall chestnuts with a regal look. His first crop won $1,137,869, breaking a stallion record set by Bold Ruler in 1967. He has sired one champion, Althea, who was the top 2-year-old filly in 1983 and beat colts to win the Arkansas Derby in 1984. Another daughter, Miss Oceana, won six major stakes and $1 million, and Saratoga Six, one of the $2.2-million colts, was undefeated before he broke down at Santa Anita late last year and was retired to stud.

Some of Affirmed’s offspring look like him--rangy chestnuts--but most of them are a mixed bag. His first crop was a disaster. Of 20 2-year-olds that raced, only four reached the winner’s circle. He has yet to sire the winner of a major race, and of five stakes winners, three have been in Europe, one was at obscure Tampa Bay Downs and another was in a $25,000 race at Gulfstream Park. The total purses for Affirmed’s offspring in the United States as of a week ago was $610,000, about half of what Alydar achieved with his first crop.

“Affirmed has shown continual improvement,” says Jack Hall, vice president of Spendthrift, where Seattle Slew and a long list of leading stallions stand. “We think his colors will eventually come forth.”

There is the feeling in breeding circles that Affirmed’s offspring might be the kind of race horses that develop late in their careers. Aaron Jones, a Eugene, Ore., lumber executive who bred and raced 1982 handicap champion Lemhi Gold, says that mating Affirmed with more hot-blooded mares would help his record.

Of the original 36 shareholders in Affirmed, who paid $400,000 each for a once-a-year breeding right over the stallion’s lifetime, 70-80% are still in the syndicate, according to Hall. But Affirmed as a stud is not a bull market. The Matchmakers Breeders’ Exchange, a Lexington-based international clearing house for buying and selling interests in stallions, reported in March that it sold a lifetime share for only $200,000. Matchmaker also said it had sold a one-time breeding right to Alydar for $330,000, with no guarantee of a live foal.

“In my mind, the Matchmaker figures are not an accurate picture, because they don’t reflect bonuses and other aspects that might be part of a transaction,” Hall said.

Hall wouldn’t say what Affirmed is insured for, but the policy on Alydar is for $40 million, the most Calumet could buy, and the annual premium runs more than $2 million.

J.T. Lundy, the plain-talking president of Calumet Farm, knows that it’s worth it. For an interview at Calumet, Lundy sat behind his second-floor desk in the administration building, his shirttail out and wearing a blue windbreaker with the name of an auto-race sponsor on the sleeve. A.J. Foyt, whose son trains horses, has been sponsored by Calumet at the Indianapolis 500.

“What Alydar is is a breeding machine,” Lundy said. “Last season, he got 97% of his mares in foal. Anything between 60 and 80% is considered good. Maybe we should give all of our stallions a little lead.”

Lundy was referring to the lead poisoning that Alydar suffered in 1983 after ingesting particles of chipped paint that blew off a Calumet-barn roof. He credits veterinarian Alex Harthill with saving Alydar’s life.

“The horse was sick for a month,” Lundy said. “He acted like he was drunk, and I’ve known horses that have died after having the same symptoms. The insurance people came in to look at the horse and acted like idiots. Doc Harthill checked him out, right away said the problem was toxic and began treating him. He might not have made it otherwise.”

Affirmed had different physical problems last year.

“He came out of his paddock one day in early February and was lame,” says Ernie Frazier, the stallion manager at Spendthrift. “It was a small fracture in his right hind pastern. He missed a couple of months, but he didn’t miss any covers (breedings to mares). He handled a full book (50-55 mares).”

As a stud, Affirmed resembles his grandsire, Raise a Native, who was very aggressive in the breeding shed. “It doesn’t take him very long (to service a mare),” Frazier said. “A couple of minutes and she walks through the (back) door (leading to the outside).”

In the paddocks at Spendthrift, Affirmed is separated from Seattle Slew by Mehmet, a younger stallion who twice defeated John Henry during his career. Affirmed and Alydar are both chestnuts, but Affirmed’s color is more butterscotch, Alydar’s more dark chocolate.

Affirmed weighs about 1,380 pounds, almost 300 more than when he raced. “I saw him at the farm last year,” said Laz Barrera, who was given a lifetime share in the horse by Wolfson and his wife Patrice, who raced Affirmed. “He knew me. He smelled my hand and knew me right away.”

Barrera was one of several people who have bittersweet memories of the Affirmed-Alydar battles in 1978. A few years ago, Barry Irwin, a bloodstock agent then working for the Daily Racing Form, was visiting Barrera at the trainer’s home near Santa Anita and asked to see his Triple Crown trophy. Barrera opened his shirt and showed Irwin the scar that was left from 72 stitches on his chest, the result of bypass surgery after a massive heart attack in March of 1979.

The pressures of a Triple Crown campaign started for Barrera a few days after Affirmed had won the Santa Anita Derby by eight lengths. It was the day between the closing of Santa Anita and the opening of Hollywood Park, when trucks and shipping vans clogged the stable area at Santa Anita.

Affirmed, out on the track for a gallop, threw his exercise rider and raced for the gap in the rail that leads to the barns, with Barrera and other horsemen in frantic pursuit.

“People lined up in front of him like bullfighters, but he wouldn’t slow down,” Barrera said. “Nobody could stop him.”

The chase ended at Barrera’s barn, where Affirmed, unescorted, had found his way to his stall.

“He knew he had done something wrong,” Barrera said. “He was standing in the corner, looking afraid, afraid we were going to punish him.”

For a different reason, Steve Cauthen applied some punishment in the Hollywood Derby a few days later. Told by Barrera to discourage Affirmed from loafing once he got the lead, Cauthen hit the colt about 12 times through the stretch in a two-length victory.

Three weeks later, in the Kentucky Derby, Alydar, with wins in the Flamingo and the Florida Derby and a 13-length victory in the Blue Grass Stakes, went off a slight favorite over Affirmed, whose ability to run 1 miles was being questioned.

Affirmed had beaten Alydar in four of six races as a 2-year-old, and the 1 1/2-length win in the Derby would be the biggest margin in the Triple Crown series. A cocky Veitch had predicted before the Derby that Alydar would blow by everybody in the stretch.

Now, Veitch recalls the race and says that his colt had difficulty handling the deep track at Churchill Downs. Rose, at Churchill Downs this week to exercise Proud Truth, a Veitch starter in Saturday’s Derby, supplies a different explanation, however.

“John never wanted me to tell this because he thought it would sound too much like an excuse,” Rose said. “But when the horses went past the stands the first time in the Derby, Alydar jerked his head back for no apparent reason. I was watching from track level and got a real good look at it.

“After the race, at the test barn, we found out that he got hit in the eye with a clod of dirt. And the clods at Churchill are not just little hunks of dirt, they’re the biggest you’ll see at any track. Alydar’s eye was bothering him so bad that he was trying to lie down and rub it on the grass. We had to call a vet to treat him and he was all right for the Preakness.

“But that’s why he was so far back, and if you look at a replay of the race, it’s obvious that he jerks his head at that one point.”

After the race, Barrera unloaded on those skeptical of Affirmed: “Just because we run in California, no matter. If we run in China, this is a good horse. We need better competition to see how fast he can really run.”

Affirmed was clocked in 2:01 1/5, the fifth fastest time in Derby history.

Pressures continued to multiply for Barrera in Baltimore, where the Preakness was run two weeks later. He scolded Cauthen for not being at the barn to discuss strategy on the morning of the race. He was not pleased that his son, Albert, had entered a horse with little chance in the race.

Veitch, bemoaning the fact that Alydar was 17 lengths behind at one point in the Derby but refusing to criticize jockey Jorge Velasquez, once more predicted victory.

At the top of Pimlico’s stretch, Alydar wasn’t running from the back of the pack, he was at Affirmed’s heels. Affirmed’s lead was only a half length at the eighth pole. Alydar kept trying, but Affirmed doggedly held him off to win by a neck.

Eddie Maple, who had ridden Believe It to third-place finishes in both the Derby and Preakness, conceded victory to Affirmed in the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the Triple Crown, three weeks later in New York. But Veitch wanted to try one more plan with Alydar, putting him close to Affirmed in the early going.

“They could have run five more miles and my horse would not have let the other one in front,” Barrera said. “Alydar was a fighter, but it was too bad that he came along in a year when there was a horse with more fight.”

Minutes after the Belmont, Margarita Velasquez, the jockey’s wife, was sitting in the Belmont Park dining room and heard someone at a nearby table say: “Alydar would have won if he had a different rider.”

Margarita says: “I was so mad. They had to take me out of the dining room. How could someone say something like that about Jorge? Of all the horses he’s ridden, Alydar is inside us forever, just because of his personality.”

After the Belmont, the score stood at 7-2, in favor of Affirmed, but the indefatigable Veitch still intended to run Alydar in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in August. The trainer didn’t really expect Affirmed to show up for the race. “Why would they run him?” Veitch said. “They’d won the Triple Crown, what else did they have to prove?”

Affirmed did run in the Travers, but it was what happened after the race that got all the attention.

First, Cauthen had a knee injury and was unable to ride. Barrera replaced him with Laffit Pincay, who was 3 for 3 aboard Affirmed. The first time Pincay had ridden Affirmed in 1978, in the San Felipe Handicap at Santa Anita in March, it was because Cauthen was suspended. Barrera, unable to choose between Pincay and Angel Cordero, flipped a coin and Pincay won.

Before 50,000 fans, the field of four neared the half-mile pole and Affirmed ranged up on the outside of Shake Shake Shake, who was ridden by Cordero. Cordero eased Shake Shake Shake out from the rail, giving Alydar and Velasquez room to come through.

Affirmed, on the outside, and Alydar, along the rail, both passed Shake Shake Shake. About a half length in front, Pincay yanked Affirmed to the rail, causing Alydar to stumble and almost causing Velasquez to be thrown.

Affirmed went on to win by almost two lengths, but the victory was quickly negated by the stewards, who took only four minutes to disqualify the winner and move Alydar up to first.

Arriving at the press box for interviews after the race, a gloating Veitch minced no words: “That bareback crap (by Pincay) might go in California, but it doesn’t cut any ice in New York. Pincay ought to get 30 days on bread and water for what he did.”

The next day, Louis Wolfson hinted that Cordero may also have been a culprit, coming out on Affirmed and giving Alydar room on the rail. Pincay rode Affirmed to wins in both the San Felipe and the Santa Anita Derby, and Cordero and his agent at the time, Tony Matos, reportedly said that Barrera had promised them the horse if Cauthen wasn’t available.

“It’s too bad about all the controversy,” Veitch said recently, “because that was Alydar at his best that day.”

Better than he was in the Belmont, when he missed beating Affirmed by a head?

“I’ve got a tape of that race at home but I’ve never played it,” Veitch said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s history.”

The following year, Cauthen, mired in a losing streak that would reach 109 races, permanently lost the mount on Affirmed to Pincay. Repeatedly, Cauthen would tell Barrera that Affirmed was loafing on him. Barrera felt that Pincay, one of the strongest jockeys in the game, would compensate for that fault.

Pincay never lost aboard Affirmed in 10 races. “He did everything right,” Pincay says. “He was a perfect horse, sound and never nervous, and he always fought back when challenged.”

Ironically, the transplanted Cauthen rode Affirmed’s first stakes winner as a stud, a colt named Claude Monet, in the Heathorn Stakes at Newmarket, England, in May of last year.

If the Affirmed connection turned sour for Cauthen, so did the Calumet relationship for Veitch, who was replaced as the farm’s trainer a couple of years ago. Veitch, who in Proud Truth will have a Kentucky Derby starter for John Galbreath’s Darby Dan Farm this Saturday at Churchill Downs, says that the change was inevitable at Calumet, because Lucille and Gene Markey, the owners, had both died.

“We had made Frank Whiteley our general manager, and John Veitch didn’t like him,” says Lundy, who is married to a granddaughter of Lucille Markey’s. “John knew how tough Frank was, that he was all business and there’d be no B.S.”

Lundy says that the trust that runs Calumet didn’t want to give Veitch a lifetime breeding service to Alydar. “Mrs. Markey should have given him the service, for the good job he did training the horse, but she was the kind of woman who wouldn’t give anybody anything,” Lundy said. “I’ve seen to it that John gets the service on a year-to-year basis, but I can’t guarantee that it’ll be permanent. All I can do is make recommendations to the board.”

Alydar’s original stud fee was $40,000, then it quickly spiraled to $125,000. Since last year, however, the stallion has been split up this way:

--Fifteen people, such as international art dealer Daniel Wildenstein, have bought lifetime shares at $2.5 million apiece.

--Calumet has retained 15 shares.

--Twenty-three investors, for a minimum fee of $400,000, are allowed to breed approved mares to Alydar for two seasons, with one foal going to the investor and the other being retained by Calumet.

“The people involved in this horse have cubic dollars,” Lundy said. “But they’re sensible people (regarding the selection of mares). Sometimes you get involved in a syndicate and you can get some crazy people. But we’ve been lucky.”

Burt Bacharach, the composer, bred Heartlight No. One, the champion 3-year-old filly in 1983, to Alydar this year. Another of Alydar’s mares this year has been Christ Church, who’s owned by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen of England, indeed. “Hey, Affirmed,” Alydar might say. “Just look at me now.”