Alydar: Triple Crown Loser

In the spring of 1978, my friends and I would ride around on our bikes pretending we were atop racehorses instead. My mount? Alydar. His name sounded so much more exotic than his rival, Affirmed, which sounded like something written on a profit-and-loss sheet.

Alydar has been the only horse in the history of the Triple Crown to finish second in all three races. In any other year, he would have been the champion. It seems fitting that no horse has won the Triple Crown since 1978, the year of Alydar and Affirmed’s great rivalry.

After a very successful career as a stud horse, Alydar broke his leg under mysterious circumstances in 1990 and had to be put down. A June 2001 story in Texas Monthly alleges that in fact, he was murdered.

More on the career of this great racehorse.