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What Is The Triple Crown?

By CM Towle

May 13, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; (editors note: caption correction) Horse trainer Bob Baffert walks American Pharoah into the Preakness Barn after arriving for the 140th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
May 13, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; (editors note: caption correction) Horse trainer Bob Baffert walks American Pharoah into the Preakness Barn after arriving for the 140th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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As the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, draws near, we take a look at what exactly is the Triple Crown?

The Triple Crown is probably the most difficult feat in all of sports, as evidenced by its 36 year drought since the last winner. In the interest of disambiguation, other countries have their own Triple Crowns, but the United States Triple Crown consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes is the one that gets the most publicity and notoriety in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.

The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing in the United States, as it stands today, is three races for three-year olds beginning in early May and going into June. The three races are, as mentioned, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. The Kentucky Derby is probably still the most famous of these and is held every year the first Saturday in May. It’s run at a mile and a quarter on the dirt at Churchill Downs in Kentucky.

Two weeks later, the Preakness Stakes is held at Pimlico in Maryland. This race is run at a mile and three-sixteenths on the dirt, so slightly shorter than the Derby. Three weeks after this race, the Belmont Stakes is run at Belmont Park at a mile and a half distance on dirt. The Derby may be the more famous race, but the Belmont Stakes is somewhat infamous as the marathon from a bygone age. In the present day where races are shorter and the layoff between them is longer, many Derby and Preakness winners just don’t have it. The fact is that there just aren’t that many mile and a half races run on dirt in the present day, and most horses don’t run three weeks back, or even two weeks back.

The Triple Crown is thus, the achievement of winning all three of these races. The Triple Crown races have been in existence for a long time, since 1867 for the Belmont, 1873 for the Preakness and 1875 for the Derby. However, the Triple Crown itself took awhile to reach its present status. The actual Triple Crown trophy wasn’t commissioned until 1950. The first Triple Crown winner was Sir Barton in 1919, but the name didn’t start into use until 1923 at the earliest and 1930 at the latest.

The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978. Since then there have been 13 horses to win the first two legs, only to come up short in the Belmont. That’s more than the total horses to ever win the Triple Crown, which currently stands at 11.

Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in 1973, still holds the records for the individual races. His times were 1:59 2/5 in the Kentucky Derby , 1:53 in the Preakness Stakes and 2:24 in the Belmont Stakes.

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