Steve Cauthen and Affirmed win the Belmont and the title
They did it. The kid and the colt, Steve Cauthen and Affirmed, became the eleventh winners of the Triple Crown of American Thoroughbred racing last Saturday by taking one of the most thrilling races in the history of the sport. They measured up to the demanding 1½-mile Belmont Stakes—"test of the champions" —and moved into the most select circle of racing royalty. Affirmed's honor was made grander still by the rousing challenge of his gallant rival, Alydar, who shadowed Harbor View Farm's chestnut in lockstep around the graceful, sweeping turns and down the long, open straightaways of New York's Belmont Park. At the wire, Affirmed won this race of matchless drama by a head.
The five-horse field got away cleanly, Cauthen steering Affirmed into an immediate, if slow-paced lead. Alydar's trainer, John Veitch, had feared a repeat of Affirmed's easy gallop on the lead at the Preakness and planned to up the pace if Cauthen tried to lope off with the race once more. Said Veitch: "Alydar will be Affirmed's shadow."
And so he was. On the second turn, with slightly less than a mile to run, Jockey Jorge Velasquez moved Alydar up on the outside and parked his big, handsome colt on Affirmed's right shoulder. Down the long backstretch the two colts ran stride for stride, coats glistening in the big move to the finish. The field was already left far behind. Affirmed and Alydar flew out of the final turn and into the home stretch, driving for the wire, joined in desperate struggle. With 3/16 of a mile to go, Alydar pushed in front by a nose, but Affirmed, running now on heart, reclaimed the lead with 20 yds. left. They thundered home, two great colts running in splendor. When it was over, Steve Cauthen put the dimensions of their duel with eloquent simplicity: "This was a horse race."
By winning the Belmont, Affirmed added $110,580 to his purses, raising his total winnings to $1,133,807. He is the youngest millionaire in racing history. His victory came a year and a day after Seattle Slew won his crown. The two colts are the first back-to-back Triple Crown winners in racing history, and, with Secretariat (1973), the second and third in six seasons. The remarkable conjunction marks a halcyon period for the three-year-olds' classics. Eleven years passed between the first winner, Sir Barton (1919). and Gallant Fox (1930); a full quarter-century separated the triumphs of Citation (1948) and Secretariat.
The odds on a colt's matching the demands of the Triple Crown are long enough to fire larceny in a bettor's soul and break a breeder's heart. Almost 30,000 Thoroughbreds are foaled annually on North American farms, but only about 3% ever win a stakes race, much less one of the Triple Crown races. Breeding Thoroughbreds is far from an exact science. Says Brownell Combs II, the manager of Spendthrift Farms, regularly one of the tops in the sport: "You breed the best mare you can possibly get to the best stallion you can possibly get and then you hope for the best." And Combs adds: "Breeding Thoroughbreds is like rolling dice."