What Races Make Up The Triple Crown In Horse Racing

Horse Racing's Triple Crown

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The Triple Crown of U.S. thoroughbred racing is a prize given to a horse that wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in the same year. Horses that win the Triple Crown are usually ridden by the same jockey, and both horse and jockey are awarded the Triple Crown Trophy.

The three races are all run within six weeks of one another, in May and early June. The Kentucky Derby takes places in Louisville, Ky., on the first Saturday in May, the Preakness follows two weeks later in Baltimore, Md., and the Belmont rounds out the schedule three weeks after that, in Belmont, N.Y.

This was not always the case. The Belmont Stakes was the first of the three races to be run, in 1867. The Preakness came along in 1873, followed by the Kentucky Derby two years later. In 1917 and 1922, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness were run on the same day. The current order was set in 1931.

Winning the Triple Crown is a difficult achievement. As of 2015, only 12 horses have done it.

The 12 horses that have won the Triple Crown are these:

  • Sir Barton (1919)
  • Gallant Fox (1930)
  • Omaha (1935)
  • War Admiral (1937)
  • Whirlaway (1941)
  • Count Fleet (1943)
  • Assault (1946)
  • Citation (1948)
  • Secretariat (1973)
  • Seattle Slew (1977)
  • Affirmed (1978)
  • American Pharaoh (2015).

One reason that winning the Triple Crown is so difficult is that the three races are of different lengths. The Kentucky Derby race distance is 1.25 miles. The distance for the Preakness Stakes is 1.19 miles. The longest of the three, the Belmont, is 1.5 miles.

The history of these three races is full of horses that have won one race or even two in the same year but not all three. In recent years, trainers have opted not to enter horses in all three races. American Pharaoh, the 2015 Belmont winner, was the first winner of that race in nearly a decade to have run the first two races as well.

Other notes:

  • Jockey Eddie Arcaro, the only rider to win the Triple Crown twice, rode both Whirlaway (1941) and Citation (1948). Both horses were owned by Calumet Farms.
  • Omaha, the 1935 Triple Crown winner, was the son of 1930 Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox. Both horses had the same owner, Belair Stud, and the same trainer, James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons.
  • The race record for each of the three races is still by held 1973 winner Secretariat. The 2 minutes, 24 seconds that the horse turned in for the 1937 Belmont Stakes is still a world record for that distance.
  • The youngest jockey to win the Triple Crown was Steve Cauthen, who was 18 when he rode Affirmed to three victories in 1978.
  • Victor Espinoza, the jockey who rode 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh, was the oldest jockey to win the prize, at 43.
  • Trainer D. Wayne Lukas had one horse, Thunder Gulch, win the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont in 1995 and another horse, Timber Country, win the Preakness in the same year.
  • More than 4,100 horses have competed in the three Triple Crown races. Nearly 300 horses have won one of the races. Only 52 have won two (but not all three). Of those two-win combiantions, 23 were the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, 18 were the Preakness and the Belmont, and 11 were the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont.
  • Alydar finished second to Affirmed in all three races in 1978.
  • The Kentucky Derby has run every year since its inception, in 1875. The Preakness did not run in 1891–1893, and the Belmont did not run in 1911–1912.

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Winning a Triple Crown is the highest honor in any national horse racing circuit. All horseracing nations host their own Triple Crowns which consist of three. Horse racing triple crown. Horse Racing for PC. 2016 game brings the experiences and emotions of a horse race. Triple Crown Horse Racing!!! It's been three decades since Affirmed swept that race along with the Derby and Preakness to give racing its 11th Triple.

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What Horse Races Make Up The Triple Crown

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Big Brown was the winner of the 134rd Kentucky Derby on May 3, 2008 in a time of 2:01.82. The three-year-old surged to victory in one of the most remarkable performances in Kentucky Derby history.

What Races Make Up The Triple Crown In Horse Racing


Big Brown charged to the lead turning for home and then cruised down the stretch to win the Preakness on Saturday, still perfect and squarely pointed toward thoroughbred racing's first Triple Crown in 30 years.
Just as he did two weeks ago in a Kentucky Derby, marred by the breakdown of Eight Belles, the colt named for UPS delivered another stunning win, this time by 5@1/4 lengths. Macho Again was second and Icabad Crane was third.
The Belmont Stakes will be run June 7. It's been three decades since Affirmed swept that race along with the Derby and Preakness to give racing its 11th Triple Crown winner.

What Are The Horse Races In The Triple Crown

Races

What Races Make-up The Triple Crown In Horse Racing

Big Brown broke from the middle of an undistinguished pack and jockey Kent Desormeaux took him off the pace. He was fourth the first time past the grandstand, behind pacesetter Gayego. He moved up to third on the first turn, where he stayed all the way down the backstretch.
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