[1] He 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.

Trained by Jack Van Berg, Alysheba had a modest two-year-old season in 1986, and won only a maiden race.

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.

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

Alysheba closed out his career at Churchill Downs, winning the 1988 Breeders' Cup Classic over Seeking the Gold, Waquoit (one of the most noted off-track runners of the time), Forty Niner, and Cutlass Reality.

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

In October 2008, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia returned Alysheba to his homeland as a gift to the American people.

After spending eight years in the king's royal stables, Alysheba returned to the United States to live at the Kentucky Horse Park.

He 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.

"Due to a chronic degenerative spinal condition that led to ataxia and instability, Alysheba fell in his stall yesterday, injuring his right hind femur," said Kathy Hopkins, the Horse Park's director of equine operations.

Alysheba was buried on March 28 at the Kentucky Horse Park's Hall of Champions, across from the grave of John Henry.