Horse Racing Fantasy Community

I myself have a YouTube channel (click here to check it out http://www.youtube.com/user/gfn02), I'm a SECRETARIAT fan, and I have made some videos. This series will not be a shameless plugging of my videos or channel, but when a video of mine is relevant to this series, I will be sharing them with you, not for the glorification of my massive ego (CO-stanz-A!!!), but rather in the hope that some attention can be given and discussion ignited in the name of the horse featured. After all, we're all racing fans, no? No? Well then why are you here?

Now that we've got that out of the way I'd like everybody to check their calendars. That's right, the year is 2008, the 30th anniversary of the last Triple Crown Champion, the beautiful chestnut Affirmed. One can't think of Affirmed without his rival, the one and only Alydar. No doubt the first thing that comes to mind is their all-out battle to the wire in the 1978 Belmont, Affirmed reaching for the Triple Crown, Alydar driving for the denial, but many people forget that these two met ten times, a whopping six as 2 year-olds! Visit this channel to see those races http://www.youtube.com/user/cf1970 You certainly don't see any of today's juvenile champs racing six times, let alone six times against another horse. Affirmed was the only reason Alydar didn't get any Eclipse awards, but he was a very worthy adversary (the man in the black pajamas, Dude); he finished 2nd to Affirmed seven times (Affirmed was DQ'd in the Travers and Alydar awarded 1st), beating him twice. His record in 26 starts was 14 wins, 7 Places, 1 Show. Make the 6 official 2nd's to Affirmed wins and all of a sudden we're talking about 20 wins in 26 starts, and his record in non-Affirmed races was 11 wins in 16 races.

As for Affirmed, he came back in '79 and won Horse of the Year again, finishing with a record of 22-5-1 in 29 starts. Historically, these two are joined at the hip. Accordingly, we've decided to show you ALL 3 of their great battles during the 1978 Triple Crown.

The 1978 Kentucky Derby with Dave Johnson on the call. Watch the strong closing move Alydar makes, but Affirmed is just too strong.

1978 Preakness, not sure of the announcer, maybe Bob Weems? This time Alydar moves earlier and closes the gap.

Finally, here's the 1978 Belmont, the last Triple Crown race called by the great Chic Anderson. This time Velasquez rates Affirmed up until the 5/8th's pole, and from that point on it's a duel for the ages, and because of these horses' history, the fact that the Triple Crown was on the line, and the courage shown by both, I rank this as the greatest finish in Triple Crown history. Disagree? Well then let's hear it, but watch this first!

Watchin' all three races in succession certainly gets the blood pumping, doesn't it? Incidentally, if anybody out there knows where to find the network broadcast of the Belmont, drop us a line....don't you think it would be more exciting to be able to hear a) the crowd and b) Anderson's call of the finish? Yeah, me too, but alas, I can't seem to find it.

gfn02