Alydar, the famous chestnut throughbred racehorse who is best known for dueling with his rival Affirmed in all three legs of the 1978 Triple Crown, was named by the owner of Calumet Farms, Lucille Markey, after her close friend the Aga Khan of Islam. His name was Aly Khan and she addressed his royal highness as "Aly darling!" Alydar is a contraction of Aly darling!
Alydar was born March 23, 1975 at Calumet Farm and also died there of mysterious causes on Nov. 15, 1990.
Alydar had no trouble beating any of his adversaries by a huge gap, except for the impressive Affirmed.
Alydar finished his career with 14 victories -- and nine seconds -- in 26 starts and earned $957,195, while Affirmed, who was Horse of the Year at age 3 and 4, won 22 of 29 races and $2,393,818. sportsillustrated.cnn.com /horse_racing/news/2003/04/26/affirmed_alydar_ap
Interesting tidbit: The Aga Khan was once married to one of America's own on-screen royalty, Rita Hayworth.
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I love Alydar's name. I recently read a book about Affirmed that failed to mention how Alydar got his name, and I think that's an interesting story. Affirmed's name is also interesting!
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