Customer Reviews

Affirmed and Alydar: Thoroughbred Legends

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I was 15 years old in 1978 when I watched two horses battle tooth and nail for that year's Triple Crown. The Affirmed/Alydar rivalry may be the best in horse racing history and could be one of the best in sports history. Three great races, each one more competitive than the one below, climaxing with the greatest horse race in history, the 1978 Belmont Stakes, where Affirmed completed the Triple Crown sweep by edging out his rival Alydar by a head.

I thought the idea of combining the stories of these two great horses was a great idea for the Thoroughbred Legends series. Tim Capps has done a good job in capsulizing both horses careers, from their breeding (both horses had blood of Raise A Native - Alydar's sire and Affirmed's grandsire) to their career (where they met nine times in total), to their years at stud (where Alydar was the runaway winner) to their deaths (Affirmed's through the maladies of old age and Alydar's through suspicious circumstances).

My only complaint about the book is that it appears that most of Capps' research was done through reading and summarizing articles about the two horses' races. Unlike some of the other books in this series, there are very few quotes from the two horses' connections (in fact it appears he only interviewed Alydar's trainer, John Veitch). Many of the horses' connections are still alive (like their jockeys) and it would have been nice to hear more about their thoughts on the two horses.

Overall, a good book about these great warriors from years ago.

Tim did a very good job with the hitorical account of the Famous Affirmed/Alydar rivalry.

Many people do not know that they met many times outside of the 3 Triple Crown races.

In fact, as 2 yr olds at Saratoga, Alydar was placed first in a DQ of Affirmed !

The Triple Crown races set these two horses apart from the rest of the racing world, becasue they owned the Triple Crown.

While Affirmed was a clear victor in the Kentucky Derby, his Preakness win was much closer then most people remember.

Coming into the Belmont Stakes, a Triple Crown was on the line and nobody dared even intimate that Affirmed would win it.

Coming through the entire length of the very long Belmont Park Stretch, Affirmed and Alydar hooked up into an EPIC battle.

They bobbled back and forth and back and forth and no one could tell who was going to win, no one gave an inch !

When they hit the wire and Affirmed has a NOSE in front it was simply the luck of the bob. These two horses were equals, and while Affirmed deserves the glory of being a Triple Crown winner, Alydar went on to become on of the greatest sires of all time.

A must have book for the Horse Racing enthusiast, and one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport.

Best Regards to all, MC - TheStickRules.Com

Unworthy refers to the book, not the horses. The book is really thin, in both content and intensity. The first chapter was exciting and well written (in the vein of Nack's "Secretariat"). The rest, however, is poorly written and put together and ends as anti-climactically as the rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar. The price is simply too much. I was surprised that the author, who seems to have the credentials, wrote stumbling sentences and never seemed to believe in the two horses.