The Triple Crown

The Triple Crown for Thoroughbred Racing is the most prestigious award for any thoroughbred horse to win. It consists of three separate races that together form this difficult achievement. It is limited to three-year old horses, and in recent years, many of these horses have been trained for very specific distances. So the variety of these three tracks has been difficult for one horse to conquer within the past 30 years.

The Triple Crown Path

The first of these prestigious tracks that a horse must conquer on the quest for the Triple Crown is the Kentucky Derby. This derby is run at Churchhill Downs located in Louisville, Kentucky. The track is 1.25 miles (2.01km) long and always takes place on the first Saturday in May, every year.

The Kentucky Derby is then followed by the Preakness Stakes two weeks later. The track is 1.1875 miles long (1.91km) and is run at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Three weeks later the last of the Triple Crown Races will take place in early June. This last race, the Belmont Stakes, is located in Belmont, New York. The track is 1.5 miles (2.41km) long and completes the Triple Crown path for whichever horses had or will have the chance to win.

Triple Crown History

Over the last century, since the beginning of the Triple Crown, there have only been 11 horses to win the prestigious award. Eight of which have accomplished the feat before 1949. Since then, only three have won: Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed.

The first eight horses to win the Triple Crown were Sir Barton ridden by Johnny Loftus in 1919, Gallant Fox ridden by Earl Sande in 1930, Omaha ridden by Willie Saunders in 1935, War Admiral ridden by Charley Kurtsinger in 1937, Whirlaway ridden by Eddie Arcaro in 1941, Count Fleet ridden by Johnny Longden in 1943, Assault ridden by Warren Mehrtens in 1946, and Citation ridden by Eddie Arcaro in 1948.

In the past 30 years, no horse has made this accomplishment. This drought has been nearly been ended 11 times by various horses that have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, but have failed to win the Belmont in June. Just within the last six years War Emblem, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, and Big Brown have done this.

Sponsorship

In recent years the VISA credit card company withdrew its sponsorship from the Triple Crown. There was a controversy over the $5 million that VISA had agreed to pay the next winner of the Triple Crown. The bonus is now backed by the Triple Crown Productions and is still up for grabs for another team to take home.

Television rights to the Belmont Stakes were also recently converted. The prior owner to the rights, NBC, had broken its deal with American Broadcasting Company, and now ESPN will hold the rights. The rights to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes are still held by NBC.

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