Whirlaway — the only Triple Crown winner to win the Travers Stakes — had a tendency to veer toward the middle of the track in races.

A Whirl(away) of a Kentucky Derby

May 6, 2019

The fallout continues from Maximum Security’s DQ in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Co-owner Gary West filed an appeal that was quickly shot down and will not run the horse in two weeks in the Preakness Stakes. That’s a shame because it could’ve been a kind of redemption and Maximum Security could’ve joined Man o’ War and Native Dancer as one of the greatest horses to never win the Derby. (Man o’ War’s owner, August Belmont Jr. — the Belmont Stakes was named after his father — thought his colt too young for the Derby. And the Dancer lost the 1953 Derby to Dark Star in a race in which his jockey, Eric Guerin, was criticized for taking “that colt everywhere around the track except the ladies’ room”.) It was the only race that the Dancer ever lost.

Straight from the jockey’s mouth: Victor Espinoza dishes on American Pharoah

August 6, 2015

American Pharoah is a gift from God – our own Pegasus, our own wingéd spirit. So when I received an invitation to hear Victor Espinoza speak at Steiner Sports Marketing in New Rochelle, N.Y. on Aug. 3 – well, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

The “Triple Crown Celebration With Victor Espinoza” was a revelation both for what we amateurs learned about horses and horse racing and the frankness with which Espinoza discussed these subjects.

Looking natty in a gray suit and sky-blue tie, the Mexican-born Espinoza – who guided American Pharoah to the first Triple Crown in 37 years, then capped it with a resounding win in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 2 – was both humble and humorous as he reflected on a career of more than 3,000 victories. (He doesn’t know the exact number.) He had been to the Triple Crown dance before – aboard War Emblem, with AP trainer Bob Baffert in 2002; and then with California Chrome just last year. Or so Fox 5 New York sportscaster Tina Cervasio – the evening’s expert interviewer – reminded him. ...

American Pharoah, Triple Crown champion

June 6, 2015

Well, say what you want and, of course, in the blogosphere, the public has already said plenty. American Pharoah isn’t Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner. The field the Pharoah ran against in the Belmont Stakes Saturday, D-Day, was weak. Blah, blah, blah.

But you know what? You play the hand you’re dealt. American Pharoah led wire-to-wire, as did the last horse to win the Triple Crown before him, my beloved Affirmed, in 1978. AP ran the Belmont faster than Affirmed and Seattle Slew, who won the Triple Crown in 1977. He did whatever was asked of him, poor baby, running with his spongy earplugs, because the crowd noise rattles him. In doing so, he gave us a moment in history. That’s what great athletes do. They give us a moment in time in which we can say “I was there when” or “I remember when,” a moment that unites us with those we’ll never know. ...

The equine Ali-Frazier – Affirmed and Alydar

May 10, 2014

Amid California Chrome’s quest for the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing – which continues May 17 with The Preakness at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland – comes Linda Carroll and David Rosner’s juicy new book “Duel for the Crown: Affirmed, Alydar, and Racing’s Greatest Rivalry” (Gallery Books, $26, 360 pages). It tells the story of two coppery 3-year-old colts – laidback Affirmed out of upstart Harbor View Farm in Florida and high-strung Alydar out of Calumet Farm in Kentucky, the New York Yankees of Thoroughbred dynasties – who in the spring of 1978 offered racing fans and the general public alike two very different approaches, the authors write:

“Despite their similar chestnut coloring and their shared bloodlines as descendants of the great Native Dancer, Affirmed and Alydar boasted the kind of clashing styles and complementary personalities that fuel the most enduring rivalries. Off the track, the refined Affirmed was as relaxed and easygoing as the regal Alydar was macho and aggressive. On the track, their contrasting styles forged the equine equivalent of Ali the Boxer versus Frazier the Slugger. Affirmed, graceful and swift like Ali, was the classic frontrunner, gliding with the precision of a stopwatch and flicking his ears to alert his precocious jockey (Steve Cauthen) to an impending challenge, while Alydar, brawny and bullish like Frazier, was the classic stalker, gearing up to unleash his come-from-behind knockout punch. The classic confrontation was so close that it would all come down to one champion’s indomitable will to win.”

Indeed, they would race each other 10 times in 14 months, with Affirmed usually gaining the upper hand, er, hoof. But it wasn’t easy.