John Veitch, trainer of Alydar, dies
John Veitch, who trained Alydar to narrow losses in all three Triple Crown races against rival Affirmed in 1978 during a Hall of Fame career, has died, his family said Thursday. He was 77.
Veitch died Tuesday of natural causes at home in Lexington, Ky., said Michael Veitch, his second cousin who spoke to Veitch’s daughter, Shannon.
During his training career from 1974 to 2003, Veitch had 410 winners from 2,340 starts and earnings of $20,097,980, according to Equibase.
He was born into a family that had been training horses for three generations. His father, Sylvester, is in the Hall of Fame and the younger Veitch started out as his assistant.
Veitch trained four champions: fillies Our Mims, Davona Dale and Before Dawn, as well as Sunshine Forever, the nation’s top male turf horse in 1988. He trained Proud Truth to victory in the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Alydar beat Affirmed three times in his career, including the 1977 Champagne Stakes and the 1978 Travers Stakes via disqualification.
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