Remember Alydar and Affirmed fighting it out in the 1978 Triple Crown races? Affirmed won all three, mostly by a nose. They were great races, and the loser deserved better than this (via Skippy):
Alydar, Pratt said in his Houston testimony, had to have been killed. He speculated that someone had tied the end of a rope around Alydar’s leg and attached the other end of the rope to a truck that could easily have been driven into the stallion barn. The truck then took off, pulling Alydar’s leg from underneath him until it snapped.
If that’s true, a multi-million dollar insurance policy was behind it. This story has elements of Dick Francis; white collar crime, bribery, violence, and an aging owner of a famous horse-racing farm. If you like a mystery with characters sorely lacking in any redeeming value (except to the Texas banking industry), this is your yarn.
Photo via RacehorseBook.
Horseracing is a tough, competitive business as this article tells..
( what was the name of the racehorse that had to be destroyed at one of the Triple Crown Races? His foot broke as he raced from the gate. Many believe that the horse lost his footing because of birds on the track . It was a big story at the time. I’m thinking it was in the 70’s or early 80’s….)
I asked someone today who likes the ponies.
It was Ruffian…..
Yeah, that one was infamous. If you’d remembered the word “filly” I’d have known it. I think Joan Baez wrote a song about her.
No, Ruffian broke her leg during a match race against Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure at Belmont on July 7, 1975. It was the first and only time she faced a colt.
She won the Filly Triple Crown, but never raced in any of the races ordinarily thought of as the Triple Crown.
Dream Dance Inc.
Murder at Calumet Farms