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The grind of training and racing takes a further toll. The Triple Crown is contested on three different tracks at three different distances during a five-week period. The strain on the horses is enormous. Says Trainer T.J. Kelly: "Sure, every horse is bred to be a champion. But it's like they say, 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' There's a lot that can happen to a horse, and even the best can't run if he's injured."
Great horses have run brilliantly, only to have bad racing luck ruin their claims to the crown. The most notable: Native Dancer, whose single loss in 22 races came in the 1953 Kentucky Derby. The galvanic gray colt, the first racehorse TV celebrity, was bumped on the clubhouse turn at Churchill Downs and then had his running room blocked as the field came into the final stretch. He was beaten by a neck. In other years, outstanding colts have killed off one another's hopes. Swaps won the Derby in 1955, but Nashua took the Preakness and the Belmont. Two years later, Iron Liege, Bold Ruler and Gallant Man each won a leg of the Crown. Sham ran the 1973 Derby in a time that was the second-fastest ever clocked in the event—only to lose by 2% lengths to Secretariat, the record setter.
And some truly remarkable horses never had a shot at the title. Man o' War was not entered in the Derby (Triple Crown fever did not grip the horse world in 1920), although he did win both the Preakness and Belmont stakes. Kelso, slow to develop, did not run in the trio of races in 1960, but he matured magnificently as the season went on and was named Horse of the Year after his victories in the fall. He was to win that title four more times.
Affirmed's achievement is all the more remarkable because of the relentless opposition of Alydar. Not since the great rivalry between Swaps and Nashua have two such outstanding colts competed head to head so spectacularly. Their struggle began in June 1977, when the two-year-olds met over 5½-furlongs at Belmont. Affirmed won. Three weeks later Alydar came home in front. When their owners brought them to the showdown last weekend, the two colts had chased one another for a year in eight races at five tracks scattered across three states. Affirmed had won six of the eight, but the margin between the two was incredibly thin. After 7 9/16 miles of racing, Affirmed led Alydar by a total of three lengths—just 3/5 of a second of furious running. Affirmed's lead in the Belmont was the briefest flicker of a second. Close, but enough. With Steve Cauthen urging him on last weekend, Affirmed showed again that he was a champion that deserved the Triple Crown—a young horse and a young rider winning glory together in the spring of 1978.