QUESTION - Your Top 3 All-Time Favorite "TRIPLE CROWN" Horse Winners ?

Seattle Slew
War Admiral
Citation

For all of Secretariat's magnificence, my favorite was Affirmed. For the sheer excitement of the TC races against Alydar. Witness the Belmont.



For the last 2/3 of that race, those horses never got more than a head's separation. Secretatiat's Belmont was a coronation, Affirmed's was a horse race. The Derby and Preakness were close also. Have to feel for Alydar, a TC winner if not for Affirmed. Also, Alydar was possibly killed for insurance (shades of Pie-O-My).

Another TC horse who deserves credit, even though he never won a race was Sham. Sham broke the stakes record for the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. And was cursed to be in the same year as Secretariat. Sham finished last in the Belmont, due to an ill-advised try to run down Secretariat early.

Secretariat was a freak. The horses heart was almost too big to be in a horse. It pumped blood faster and harder that a normal equine heart. Almost like Mike Trout playing High School baseball. But it was stunning to make a mockery of the field. Especially the 1973 Derby. In addition to Big Red and Sham, there was Forego, who won eight Eclipse Awards and four American Horse of the Year. Angle Light, Our Native and Twice a Prince were fine nags. But no comparison.

Taking Triple Crown and ignoring "Winners" (and my lifetime. Whirlaway was an amazing horse)

1. Sham
2. Alydar
Winners