The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing is one of the biggest events in the world of horse racing. The three races that it includes, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, are all on their own fun and exciting. But together, they capture the attention of people who wouldn’t even consider themselves fans of horse racing in any other context.
There’s a reason for that: the Triple Crown can be hard to win from a logistical perspective, and horses really have to earn it. If you’ve ever wondered what goes into winning this legendary event or why it has such an outsized reputation as an accomplishment, check out these great facts about it.
Triple Crown – a high title
It’s been around since 1875 when it was first awarded as a prize for any horse who won those races in the same year. As the original name of the title was too long, in 1890 it was renamed as “Triple Crown” during a newspaper dispute between two papers over which one had rights to publish news about racing.
The Associated Press (AP) claimed that it owned all rights to stories about racing and would not allow others to publish them unless they paid AP money for doing so. However, some newspapers refused to pay this fee because they felt they had their own sources within racing circles who could provide them with information without having to rely on AP journalists who were writing largely biased or inaccurate articles at times due to their lack of knowledge about certain aspects related specifically towards horse racing itself.
Here’s what it takes to win the Triple Crown
You have to win the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes in the same year. The first two races are held within a week of each other, and the third race is a month after them.
Horses must qualify for the Triple Crown races
To qualify for these prestigious horse races, horses must complete a long qualification process that includes being nominated by their owners and trainers.
As you can imagine, this is a very difficult task for racehorses to achieve.
The first step in qualifying is for an owner to nominate his/her horse by sending in paperwork with signatures from both the trainer and jockey (if applicable). Then it’s up to the racing committee at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky to decide which horses will be allowed into each Triple Crown race based off of their records at previous competitions.
Once you’ve made it through those steps, comes perhaps the most difficult part: actually competing in these events! These races require several hours of running at high speeds while maintaining stamina throughout their entire journey—so it really pays off if your horse has proven himself capable before even entering one event!
Winning the Triple Crown is pretty hard!
Only 13 horses have ever accomplished winning The Triple Crown. The first winner of all three Triple Crown races was Sir Barton in 1919 and the last horse to win it was Justify in 2018. So it’s definitely true that winning this Triple Crown is not easy.
Even if you don’t know anything else about horse racing (or sports in general),I hope that this article was interesting enough so that maybe next time there’s a big race on TV you give it a watch!