24 Facts About Alysheba

Alysheba was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won two legs of the Triple Crown in 1987.

Alysheba was bred by Preston Madden at Hamburg Place Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and was sold as a yearling to Dorothy and Pam Scharbauer for $500,000.

Alysheba finished third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and lost the Hollywood Futurity in a photo finish.

Alysheba recovered from the collision and won the Derby in a slow time of 2:03.

Alysheba then came back with another win in the Preakness Stakes, then attempted to become American racing's 12th Triple Crown winner in the Belmont Stakes.

Alysheba finished fourth as Bet Twice won by 14 lengths.

Alysheba next went to Monmouth Park for the Haskell Invitational, where he met Bet Twice, as well as Lost Code, a top-class speed horse that had won several derbies run at minor racetracks.

Later in the year, Alysheba lost to Java Gold on an off track in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course; he then won the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, his final preparation race for the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Alysheba lost the Horse of the Year vote to Ferdinand, but was named Champion Three-Year-Old of 1987.

Alysheba lost to his old foes Bet Twice and Lost Code in the Pimlico Special, which had been revived for the first time in three decades.

Alysheba finished behind Cutlass Reality, who upset both Alysheba and Ferdinand in the Derby winners' final meeting in the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Alysheba then defeated Bet Twice in the Philip K Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park Racetrack.

Alysheba defeated Bet Twice in four of those races, Bet Twice won three times, and neither horse won two of the races.

Alysheba became the only horse in the modern era to run 10 furlongs under 2:00 three times in one calendar year.

Alysheba closed out his career at Churchill Downs, winning the 1988 Breeders' Cup Classic over Seeking the Gold, Waquoit, Forty Niner, and Cutlass Reality.

Alysheba became the first horse to win three legs of a four-race sequence that was defined in 2015 as the Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing: The Triple Crown races, plus the Breeders' Cup Classic, though not in the same year.

Alysheba was ridden in 17 consecutive starts by Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron.

Alysheba stood at Lane's End Farm in Woodford County, Kentucky until 1999, when he was sold to a breeding operation in Saudi Arabia.

Alysheba sired 11 stakes winners, of which his best was 1994 Canadian Horse of the Year Alywow.

Alysheba lived in the stall formerly occupied by Horse of the Year John Henry and across the aisle from Cigar, the leading money-earning Thoroughbred until surpassed by Curlin in 2008.

On Friday, March 27,2009, at 11:13 pm, Alysheba was euthanized at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute.

Besides his three Eclipse Awards for 1988 Horse of the Year, 1988 Champion Older Male, and 1987 Champion Three-Year-Old Male, Alysheba won other honors.

Alysheba was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1993.

Alysheba is inbred 4x4 to Nasrullah, meaning that Nasrullah appears twice in the fourth generation of Alysheba's pedigree.