Affirmed

Affirmed (February 21, 1975 – January 12, 2001) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the eleventh winner of the American Triple Crown. Affirmed was well known for his famous rivalry with Alydar, whom he met ten times, including Alydar coming second in each of the three 1978 Triple Crown races. After Affirmed won the Triple Crown, there was a 37-year wait until American Pharoah swept the series in 2015. Affirmed won fourteen Grade One stakes races over his career and was a champion each of the three years he raced. At age two in 1977, he was named the champion two-year-old after winning the Hollywood Juvenile Championship, Sanford, Hopeful, Belmont Futurity and Laurel Futurity. At age three, he was named "Horse of the Year" for winning the Triple Crown and other major stakes races such as the Santa Anita Derby, Hollywood Derby and Jim Dandy Stakes. He repeated as Horse of the Year at age four after winning the final seven races in his career, all but one of which was a Grade I stakes race. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980. On the Blood-Horse magazine list of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, he was ranked twelfth.