Preakness tale: again BALTIMORE fUPI) Affirmed took charge on the back stretch and held off a tremendous stretch drive from Order of finish Alydar Saturday to take the $188,700 BALTIMORE I UPI) The chart for the 103rd at Pimlico and Preakness: establish himself as a Triple Crown The Preakness. eighth race, Pimlico, May 20, 1978, threat. 1 3 16 miles. Purse $150,000 added 3-year-- olds Scale weight ( 126 pounds 1. 247 nominations. Value of Under another flawless ride from race $188,700. Calue to winner $136,200. Second Steve Cauthen, Affirmed set the $30,000 Third $15,000. Fourth $7,500. Mutuel pool $1,335,965. Exacta pool $262,946 (7 went). pace through most of the 1 3-- 16 mile race and took command finally on the Name. Jocke pp 1- -4 1- -2 3--4 str fin Sodds Affirmed. Cauthen 6 2-- 1 1- -1 1- -1 lhd Ink 0 50 backstretch as Alydar and Jorge Alvdar. Velasquez began their move towards JVelasquez 3 6-- 2 W 4-l-hf 2-l-hf 2-7- hf 1.80 . EMaple 2 3-- 1 3-- 2 3hd 3-3-hf 3-2- hf 6.70 the leader. Noon Time Spender. As the field of seven rounded the turn, Hinojosa 1 5-2- hf 4 hf 2-- 1 4-- 5 4-- 8 80 80 Indigo Star.

6-2W- 5-- both Alydar and Believe It made a Fitzgerald 7 4hf5--l 5-6 6 89.80 tremendous charge for Affirmed but DaxS. Kurtz 5 7 7 7 6-1- 6-4 93.30 Track Reward. the flying golden colt proved himself BGonzale 4 1 hd 2-- 1 5-- 2 7 7 88.70 the best and completed the race in 1:54 Winner Chestnut colt, bred 1975 i Harbor View Farms. Fla ) by Exclusive Native Won"t Tell You. 2--5, two-fift- hs of a second off Canonero bv Craftv Admiral. Trainer Lazaro Berrera. II's 1971 track record. Off 5:41. Start good. Won driving. With Believe It hanging on to finish Time 1:452-- 5 Affirmed $3.00 $210 $2.10 third, Alydar attempted to lock Af- Aldar $2.10 $2 10 firmed into another of their memorable Believe It $2.10 stretch duels. With Cauthen and Velasquez urging and whipping their mounts, Affirmed held on to a neck The crowd, drawn by sunny skies and victon', with Believe It finishing 71 86-deg- ree weather, cheered Alydar lengths back. tremendously and there were mingled It was a duplicate of the order of boos in a surprisingly lukewarm finish in the two weeks reception given Affirmed. Once in the ago. gate, which was loaded without in- Affirmed, sent off as the favorite by cident, Affirmed and Alydar stood quietly broke the record crowd of more than 80,000, and all alertly. returned $3.00, $2.10 and $2.10 while Affirmed was in the middle of a four-hor- se Alydar, the second choice, paid $2.10 drive to the front and stayed on and $2.10. Believe It, under Eddie the outside of Track Reward as they Maple, also returned $2.10 and com- went into the tight first turn. At that pleting the order of finish were Noon point, Alydar was racing next to last Time Spender, Indigo Star, Dax S. and but Velasquez was able to keep his Track Reward. mount much closer to the pace, which Affirmed turned in fractions of 23 3--5. he had not been able to do in his losing 47 3--5, 1:11 4-- 5 and 1:36 1-- 5. Affirmed effort in the Kentucky Derby. went the final 3-16- ths in a record-tyin- g Alydar swung a bit wide on the turn 183-- 5. for home but it did not seem to matter In winning his seventh straight race as Affirmed clearly established himself for trainer and Harbor as the better horse. View Farms, the chestnut colt raised It was the eighth meeting between the his lifetime earnings to $1,023,227 with two and Affirmed leads the series 6-- 2, 13 victories in 15 starts. including the two victories this year in It was the first Preakness victor' for the Triple Crown races. Barrera, who in 1976 won the Kentucky "I was right with him at the head of Derby and the Belmont with Bold the stretch but he wouldn't be passed," Forbes but failed in this second leg of said Velasquez. "'Next time I hope." the Triple Crown. The two will undoubtedly tangle "Mr. Barrera had him tuned to again in three weeks for the 1 '2-mi- le perfection again," said Cauthen, who on June 10, the final leg was riding in his first Preakness. "He's of the Triple Crown and the race Af- just super. It's starting to build up into firmed must win to become the 11th a real nice story-- " horse in history to sweep all three.