Well, it didn’t happen again—for the twentieth time in the history of horse racing’s Triple Crown, a horse that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness came up short in the Belmont Stakes. The most publicized achievement in horse racing hasn’t had a hat trick champion since 1978, when Affirmed edged Alydar by a nose in the Belmont to dramatically put an exclamation point on what had been one of the most memorable rivalries in horse racing history.

In the ensuing 36 years, even horses with fleetingly familiar names like Spectacular Bid and Alysheba (a scion of Alydar) had won the first two races before fizzling out in the third.