Duel for the Crown by Linda Carroll & David Rosner

Author:Linda Carroll & David Rosner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

CHAPTER NINE

THE BATTLE JOINED

THE VENERATED SPORTSWRITER Red Smith once famously offered these directions to Saratoga Race Course: “From New York City, you drive north for about 175 miles, turn left on Union Avenue and go back 100 years.” With the Victorian charm of its old wooden clubhouse, its quaint candy-striped awnings, and its cozy elm-shaded paddock, Saratoga transports everyone back to a bygone era when blue-blooded swells fashionably came to the races in horse-drawn carriages. The oldest and most storied sporting venue in America, the timeless track had opened during the bloodiest throes of the Civil War—in August of 1863, just a month after the Battle of Gettysburg—and then got stuck in a time warp of straw boaters and Dixieland bands.

For all the tradition and nostalgia steeping its hallowed grounds, however, the spotlight during Saratoga’s racing season has forever focused not on the past but firmly on the future. By night, the rich and famous bid millions in the nation’s premier yearling sale to buy horseflesh and hopes; and by day, at the track where they rub shoulders with two-dollar horseplayers in a curious mingling of high society and low culture, all binoculars are on the lookout for that special two-year-old capable of inspiring Derby dreams. It’s no coincidence that the grand finale of Saratoga’s annual summer meeting is not its marquee stakes for established stars, but rather its most prestigious featured race for two-year-old hopefuls. This is the only stakes race not named after a horse, a person, a place, or a thing. Instead, it is named for a feeling, for the passion shared by anyone who has ever bred or bought a young Thoroughbred: the Hopeful.

On the last Saturday in August 1977, as the dawn broke over the spa town and the morning mist hung over the track and shrouded the Victorian spires of its creaky wooden grandstand, no one had higher hopes than John Veitch.

The Calumet trainer had been very much looking forward to the seventy-third running of the Hopeful Stakes. Over the past several months, Alydar had grown a little taller and had put on even more muscle. The colt had won the Sapling decisively and was looking strong in his morning works. Even more in his favor was the fact that the Hopeful would be a step up at six and a half furlongs. That extra half a furlong might work to Alydar’s advantage. Veitch had always expected his big colt’s performance to improve with increasing distance. Now, on the morning of the race, the trainer figured he had done all he could to prepare his blossoming star for the big time.

For Affirmed, the Hopeful represented a step up not only in distance, but also in class. This was his first foray into the top tier of stakes races: Grade I, the highest level of events designated for superior racing stock. Alydar had already broken through to win a Grade I stakes race with the Sapling. Now Affirmed, fresh off his win in the Grade

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