Believe It: Third Best Wasn't Good Enough
Think of the 1978 Triple Crown and the swift, majestic images of Affirmed and Alydar battling neck and neck down the homestretch come to mind. The two rivals captured the racing world that spring, and in some races they ran as one horse, each matching the other stride for stride.
There's no doubt that Alydar would have won the Triple Crown that year had it not been for Affirmed. He finished second in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, each time coming a bit closer to defeat Affirmed, the Triple Crown champion of 1978. He lost the Belmont by just a head.
Most people, though, have forgotten about the horse that couldn't emerge from the two champions' shadows, the horse that was unlucky enough to race in the same year as two superhorses: Believe It.
Believe It, a colt owned by Mr. and Mrs. James P. Mills of Hickory Tree Stables, was the third place finisher in both the 1978 Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, and one could argue that if it weren't for Affirmed and Alydar, we might be talking about Believe It as the third Triple Crown winner of the 1970s, behind Secretariat and Seattle Slew.
"I think if you take those horses out of the equation, he would have been the guy," said Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Maple, Believe It's regular jockey. But Believe It happened to be born in a freak year, where try as hard as he could, third place was all he could muster. "The only criticism of [Believe It] is that he picked the wrong year to be a 3-year-old," wrote Gerald Strine of The Washington Post.
Almost immediately after he was foaled in 1975 at Hickory Tree Farm, Believe It, the offspring of In Reality and Breakfast Bell, was seen as a special colt. In fact, Mills was so taken with the colt as a yearling that when Believe It was sent to auction, he bought the colt back for $115,000, even paying the commission to the auction and losing money on the acquisition. "The only way anybody was going to be able to buy him was over my dead body," he told The Washington Post.
To get Believe It in shape for the 2-year-old racing season, Mills turned him over to the great trainer Woody Stephens. The colt got off to a slow start in the summer of 1977, winning only one of four races at Belmont Park in the summer of 1977 and finishing second to Alydar - twice. A fifth-place finish at the Saratoga Special caused enough concern for Stephens to switch Believe It's jockey to Maple.
It made a difference. Believe It won his next race, an allowance race in October. In the Young American Stakes, he got distracted by a pony acting up behind the gate and broke out of the starting gate 13th out of 14 horses. He rallied, though, finishing second by a neck to Forever Casting.
Believe It got his revenge a month later in the Heritage Stakes, whipping Forever Casting by 3 1/2 lengths. Going to the front early, this time under the guidance of jockey Jorge Velasquez, he began to pull away from Just Right Classi around the far turn. He never looked back.
"He ran very easy for me," Velasquez told the Associated Press. "I didn't really ask him to run until we hit the 3/8 pole. It kind of surprised me that he won with such authority, especially after running hard and head-to-head early with [Just Right Classi]."
His next challenge was the Remsen Stakes, an important race for 2-year-olds. Alydar, already making a name for himself, was made the heavy favorite, but the track was muddy that day - something that Alydar did not like. Believe It seemed to relish the sloppy track, though, and jumped to an early lead under Eddie Maple, at one time opening a four-length lead over the field. He ended up winning by two lengths over the hard-charging Alydar, setting a stakes record for the 1 1/8 mile race at 1:47 4/5.
"In the Remsen, did I think he would run that fast, that impressive? I'd have to say no," Maple recalled. "But he did, and it was like whoa, we'd better think twice about how good this colt is. Beating Alydar that day, that made it all the more impressive, and he beat him pretty handily. We went into Florida thinking we had a shot."
Racing in Florida for the winter, Believe It began slowly again, winning an allowance race, but was then soundly beaten by Alydar in the Flamingo Stakes. The colt finished fourth, tiring badly in the stretch. "He trained okay, his pre-race training was okay, but he started to come undone in the paddock," Maple said. Later in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, he finished second to Sensitive Prince, carrying 122 pounds to Sensitive Prince's 114.
In the Florida Derby, fighting off a virus, he stumbled out of the gate and tried to wait Alydar out, seeing if he could come from off the pace to beat the colt. He actually pulled beside him in the far turn, but Alydar turned on the extra speed and won by two lengths.
Things weren't looking good for the colt. But then Stephens entered Believe It in the Wood Memorial, one of the final tune-ups for the Kentucky Derby, and the horse didn't disappoint. Going to the post as the 7 to 10 favorite, he started slowly, made his move at the beginning of the far turn, and by the top of the stretch held a six-length lead over Darby Creek Road. As he went under the wire, his jockey eased him up. He won by 3 1/2 lengths.
It was clear that Believe It was ready for the Derby.
At Churchill Downs he was the number four pick, behind Affirmed, Alydar and the unbeaten Sensitive Prince. Stephens was hoping for a sloppy track, as the forecast called for rain, but as Derby Day dawned, the track was declared fast - no mud to deal with for the horses.
Believe it started quickly and settled into fourth position, waiting to make his move behind pace-setters Raymond Earl and Affirmed. As the field came out of the far turn, the colt made a mad dash to the front to challenge front-running Affirmed, leading track announcer Dave Johnson to exclaim, "Believe It on the outside! Believe It on the outside!" And at the one-mile mark, with a quarter of a mile to go, Believe It had stuck a nose in front and was officially winning the Kentucky Derby.
His moment in the sun was brief. Affirmed, who almost never let a horse pass him, would have nothing of it. He edged back in front of Believe It, began to pull away, and held off Alydar, who was coming from way off the pace, to win by 1 1/2 lengths. Believe It finished another 1 1/4 lengths behind Alydar but almost 5 lengths ahead of fourth-place finisher Darby Creek Road. Sensitive Prince finished sixth.
Although Stephens said he was pleased with Believe It's performance, he cautioned that the racing world might have seen the best of the colt. He told The Washington Post, "He ran his heart out at Churchill Downs. It was his best race: his best effort. I doubt he can do better."
Stephens was right; the Preakness Stakes turned out to be a repeat of the Derby, only worse. Believe It stayed in third for most of the race behind Affirmed, but just as he was about to make his move on the inside on the far turn, Alydar shot past on the outside, taking Affirmed with him. Those two battled it out in the stretch, leaving Believe It behind. Affirmed won by a neck, but Believe It was eight lengths behind, in third again, his heart and willpower broken by the two superstars.
After the Preakness, Stephens had had enough of the top two colts. "I'm going to where they ain't," he told reporters. "In the Derby, Believe It was beaten by less than three lengths. In the Preakness, it was nearly eight. So long, Affirmed. Bye-bye, Alydar."
For Believe It, that place was the Ohio Derby. After Maple suffered two fractured vertebrae in a racing accident, Stephens got Affirmed's jockey, the teen phenom Steve Cauthen, to ride his horse. But facing substandard competition, Believe It finished a disappointing sixth behind longshot Special Honor, who had finished last in the Kentucky Derby. Newspaper reports described the horse as coming up lame after the race, and an examination afterward confirmed a bowed tendon. Shortly thereafter, Believe It was retired to stud.
Believe It did not disappoint while at stud. He sired several Grade I stakes winners and was the damsire of Real Quiet, who won the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, missing the Triple Crown - by a nose - in the Belmont Stakes.
"The racing gods can be cruel sometimes," Maple said. They certainly weren't on the side of Believe It.
~Written by Peter Lee