Duel for the Crown

From the moment they first galloped head-to-head in Saratoga Springs, two chestnut colts showed they were the stuff of racing legend. Alydar, all muscle with a fearsome closing kick, was already the popular favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. Affirmed, deceptively laid-back streamlined elegance, was powered forward by his steely determination not to settle for second place.

In the Sport of Kings, the Triple Crown is the most valued prize, requiring a horse to win not just one race, but three: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. And 1978 would not be just for the record books, but also one of the greatest dramas ever played out in the racing world.

There were names to conjure with, worthy of the Sport of Kings. The bloodline of Native Dancer. The teen wonderboy jockey Steve Cauthen. The once unbeatable Calumet Farm—the Damn Yankees of the racing world—now in eclipse and hoping for a comeback. The newcomer Harbor View Farm—owned by brash financier Louis Wolfson, who wouldn’t let even a conviction and a prison sentence for securities violations stand in the way of his dreams of glory. And the racetracks themselves: Belmont, Saratoga, Pimlico. And, of course, Churchill Downs.

It has been almost fifty years since Affirmed and Alydar fought for the Triple Crown, during which time only two other horses have won it. Duel for the Crown brings this epic battle to life. Not just two magnificent Thoroughbreds but the colorful human personalities surrounding them, caught up in an ever-intensifying battle of will and wits that lasted until the photo finish of the final Triple Crown race . . . and Alydar and Affirmed leaped into the history books.

A riveting account.

A well-researched and entertaining chronicle of race horses Affirmed and Alydar...recommended for all horse racing fans.

Veteran journalists Linda Carroll and David Rosner have collaborated on three acclaimed nonfiction books—The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic, Duel for the Crown: Affirmed, Alydar and Racing’s Greatest Rivalry, and, most recently, Out of the Clouds: The Unlikely Horseman and the Unwanted Colt Who Conquered the Sport of Kings.

Carroll is a Peabody Award–winning writer who covers health and medicine for NBC News. An accomplished equestrian, she brings more than thirty years of experience in breeding, training, and showing horses. She owns and operates Fiery Run Farm, where she has hands-on control of breeding and training her eighteen Arabian and Oldenburg sport horses.

Rosner has worked as a sportswriter at major metro newspapers and as an editor of national magazines. As a reporter at Newsday in New York, he earned national Associated Press Sports Editors Association awards for investigative reporting and deadline writing. In addition to his book collaborations with Carroll, he co-authored The Official Illustrated NHL History.

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