Okay, so I got thinking about horse racing history the other day, specifically the Triple Crown stuff. And the year 1978 just popped into my head. Affirmed, right? What a run that was. I figured, why not dive back into it, really relive it a bit? It wasn’t like I was training a horse, obviously, but more like digging through old memories and records.
Getting Started
First thing I did was just try and remember what I could off the top of my head. It’s fuzzy, you know? Decades ago. I remembered the big rivalry, Affirmed and Alydar. That was the main thing. So, I went digging. Not physically digging, mostly online these days, but you get the idea. I started searching for race footage and old articles about that year’s Derby, Preakness, and Belmont.
The Process – Watching and Reading
I pulled up the Kentucky Derby first. Found some old broadcast footage. Watched Affirmed and Alydar battle it out down the stretch. It was closer than I even remembered! Then I did the same for the Preakness Stakes. Again, neck and neck, those two. It was incredible stuff. You just don’t see rivalries like that lock horns in every single Triple Crown race anymore.
Then came the big one, the Belmont Stakes. Man, oh man. I specifically looked for different angles and commentary if I could find them.
- Found some clips focusing just on the final stretch.
- Read a couple of old newspaper columns describing the race. They really captured the tension.
- Looked up the final margins for each race. Tiny!
Seeing it again, even on a screen, that Belmont finish… Alydar right there, pushing Affirmed the whole way. Steve Cauthen riding Affirmed, Jorge Velásquez on Alydar. Just epic. It wasn’t just about watching, though. I was trying to piece together the feeling of that time, the buzz around those races.
Putting it Together
I spent a good couple of hours just bouncing between race replays, reading summaries, and looking at photos from ’78. I jotted down a few notes, mostly about how close each race was and the different tactics the jockeys used. It felt like I was piecing together a puzzle I already knew the answer to, but finding new appreciation for the pieces.
The main thing that stuck out was just the sheer grit. Both horses, both jockeys, race after race. It wasn’t a fluke. It was sustained excellence and competition at the highest level. Going through this exercise, watching them again, reading about the build-up and the aftermath, it really brought home what a unique moment that 1978 Triple Crown was.
Final Thoughts
So yeah, that was my little project. Just revisiting a piece of racing history. Didn’t build anything, didn’t create some masterpiece. But I spent time with it, really focused on the details of those three races in 1978. It felt good, like connecting with something real and genuinely exciting from the past. Sometimes you just gotta do that, you know? Go back and appreciate the classics.
