Many support Triple Crown schedule change
Kentucky Derby hopeful Forte works out at Churchill Downs on May 2 in Louisville, Ky. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
The questions as to whether the grueling Triple Crown schedule of three races in five weeks should be altered to give the thoroughbreds more recovery time go back at least four decades.
But there may be more support for change now with the safety of the horses coming under increased scrutiny, particularly at Churchill Downs, home to the Kentucky Derby, the Triple Crown’s first leg.
The 155th Belmont Stakes will be run on Saturday, and this will mark the fifth straight year without a Triple Crown winner.
“I think it needs to be changed,” trainer Brad Cox, who is expected to run Angel of Empire, Hit Show and Tapit Shoes in the Belmont, said last week on a National Thoroughbred Racing Association conference call. “I’m not certain these horses are built for this nowadays. That’s my take on it. Some people agree, some people don’t.”
Eighteen horses ran in the 1 1⁄4-mile Kentucky Derby on May 6. Seven ran in the 1 3⁄16-mile Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Track on May 20, with only Derby winner Mage competing in both. But Mage is not running the 1 1⁄2-mile Belmont, meaning no horse will enter all three races this year.
On Thursday, Churchill Downs announced it will limit horses to four starts during a rolling eight-week period and impose ineligibility standards for continued poor performance in response to the deaths of 12 horses at the track in the past month. The next day, the track announced it would suspend its current meet as of Sunday and resume racing at Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky, on Saturday.
“I love the idea of tweaking things,” said jockey John Velazquez, who rode National Treasure to victory in the Preakness. “Every sport out there has changed for the better. And I think we are a little bit stuck in tradition and everything else. If this is going to make it for the better of the sport, I am all for it.
“Even if you get three weeks between [each of] the three races, a little more time is beneficial for the horses. And I think we’ll get trainers and owners to be more involved in the Triple Crown.”
The two weeks between the Derby and the Preakness and the three between the Preakness and the Belmont has essentially been the Triple Crown format since 1969.
There have been five Triple Crown winners in that span: Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018). Many questioned whether there would ever be another Triple Crown winner during the 37-year gap between Affirmed and American Pharoah’s victories as 13 horses won the first two legs but could not complete the trifecta at Belmont.
Cox advocated for four-to-six-week gaps between Triple Crown races, much like the horses typically get before the Breeders’ Cup in the fall.
“The Breeders’ Cup, I would say, is the biggest stage we have in racing for all of our divisions,” Cox said. “And it’s almost unheard of [for horsemen to cut it as close as] four weeks now. Now you’re seeing people back up to five and six weeks. We talk about what’s best for the horse. I think that’s probably what’s best for the horse.”
Notes & quotes: National Treasure breezed five furlongs in 59.55 seconds on Belmont’s fast main track Monday morning with exercise rider Erick Garcia aboard. The Bob Baffert-trained 3-year-old also breezed a half mile in 50.62 seconds at Belmont last Tuesday. “He worked very well this morning,” said Baffert’s chief assistant, Jimmy Barnes. “It’s a big track and you can find yourself lost out there. Erick did an excellent job working him and now we’re just waiting for the race.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
