Saturday, December 8, 2012

Affirmed, The Last Race Horse to Win the Triple Crown, Won the Triple Crown in 1978

Affirmed is the name of a famous American Race Horse that won the coveted Triple Crown in 1978. Winning the Triple Crown is such a rare occurrence in this sport that it has only happened eleven times in history with the last instance being when Affirmed successfully accomplished the feat in 1978.

Affirmed, born on February 21, 1975, is actually the great-great-grandson of a famous Triple Crown Winner by the name of War Admiral. War Admiral won the Triple Crown in 1937. Several other notable accomplished horses who were champions in their own right can be traced through the genealogy of Affirmed. With such impressive pedigree comes a great expectation of eventual success. Fortunately for the owners of Affirmed the beloved horse was able to meet even the highest of expectations.

The feat of winning the Triple Crown in American Thoroughbred racing consists of a race horse successfully navigating first place finishes in the three most prestigious races in the sport in consecutive order to close out the season in May and June. The three highly touted events are in order of occurrence the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. These three races take place in Louisville, Kentucky, Baltimore, Maryland, and Elmont, New York respectively. The timing for these three events kicks off on the first Saturday in May at the Kentucky Derby and concludes five weeks later on Long Island, New York at the Belmont Stakes.

Affirmed, The Last Race Horse to Win the Triple Crown, Won the Triple Crown in 1978

Most Triple Crown winners are widely considered the dominant horse of their era and while Affirmed certainly was a dominant horse with an impressive resume of victories this particular horse faced arguably tougher competition in his run for a Triple Crown than any other horse to successfully complete the circuit. When purist race horse historians discuss the championship career of Affirmed a horse named Alydar comes up frequently because this thoroughbred served as a worthy rival. Many analysts believe that the late 1970s when these two horses competed against one another was one of the golden eras of the sport due in large part to the main stream and commercial interest that was incited by this classic rivalry.

While the race horse named Alydar had his fair share of victories Affirmed was the horse of the year in 1978 when he became the eleventh horse to ever win the coveted Triple Crown award. Interestingly Alydar had the melancholy distinction of being the first thoroughbred to come in second place in all three of the Triple Crown races.

Before his death on January 21, 2001 Affirmed was put out to stud and as a result of his impressive family tree and racetrack success the horse commanded nearly .5 million in fees for his services, a number that was a record at the time.

Affirmed, The Last Race Horse to Win the Triple Crown, Won the Triple Crown in 1978
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Sam, the author of this piece, knows a couple of things about race horse handicapping. If readers are interested in hearing Sam's unique way of looking at race horse handicapping they are encouraged to visit the website that he has dedicated to this subject either through the link in this sentence or the previous one.

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