Alydar vs. Affirmed - 1977 Great American Stakes (2nd Meeting)

[ballem]

Alydar = Easy Goer, Affirmed = Sunday Silence...you just get the impression that Alydar was the better horse, but in most of the races Affirmed just showed way more heart, the few times that Alydar was on his game he just blew Affirmed away like he did here, but whenever it was a head to head duel, it was almost always Affirmed.

[joefederico]

Both Affirmed and Alydar were great race horses. I don't think we will ever again see that sort of competiveness between 2 horses. They bonked heads as 2 and 3 year olds. and to think that Alydar did not win a TC by a total combined margin of 2 lengths in a span of 3 races is astounding. Shades os Sham being born in the same year as Secretariat.

[caesarfiorini]

alydar raced on the left lead the entire race and still won easy

[upthecreek6]

Affirmed was just the Best Horse every time !!

Probably one of the "Greatest Ever" despite all the Public attention they gave Alydar !! According to the press Alydar was suppose to win each race of the Triple Crown (LOL) .

[xmi11]

There was good reason Alydar got a lot of press he was every bit as good as or better than Affirmed in spite of the deceptive nature of their head to head meetings. Alydar was also quite the bit more popular horse with the public, he had a special charisma that Affirmed never really had, in spite of his greatness.

[AwsiDooger]

Aly-dare? How could he make that pronunciation mistake, when it was already Alydar's 4th race?

Regardless, I'm amazed at this race. I never realized Alydar ever surged past Affirmed so early in a race, and then was able to extend. Down the stretch it was the same margin Seattle Slew enjoyed over Affirmed in the Marlboro. I wonder why Alydar never tried this again against Affirmed? Maybe he did in the Belmont but Affirmed went with him.