A Short History of the Triple Crown

NOTE: This little article was first published on the late lamented website Helium.com in 2013. Imagine my surprise when 2015 rolled around and American Pharoah did the seemingly impossible to be Triple Crown winner #12.

The American Triple Crown in thoroughbred flat racing is based on the English Triple Crown, as most elements of American horse racing are based on English horse racing.  The English Triple Crown consists of the 2,000 Guineas run on the first Saturday of May at Newmarket, the Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs in early June and the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster Racecourse which is run in the summer.

Both Triple Crowns are restricted for three-year-old colts and fillies.  For many years, geldings were restricted from some of the races but have been allowed in recent years.  This age restriction makes the Triple Crown so hard to win.  Thoroughbreds do not mature until they are five years old so they are the human equivalent of teenagers when they run in Triple Crown races.

Enter Bryan Field

Bryan Field was a prominent turf writer for The New YorkTimes in the early 1900s.  In the 1920s, he proposed that America should have a Triple Crown similar to the English Triple Crown.  He suggested that the three best candidates for the race be the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes in New York.

His idea caught on.  By the 1930s, the idea was established so firmly that a special trophy was commissioned for past and future winners of the Triple Crown.  Because the idea of an American Triple Crown was not established before the 1930s, thoroughbred superstars like Man o’ War were never entered in one of the three races.  Man o’ War, for example, never ran in the Kentucky Derby.

Only 12 Winners

The main difference in the American Triple Crown than the English version is that a horse has to win three grueling races in just five weeks.  In England they have at least seven weeks, depending on when races were scheduled.  As a result, there have only been 11 winners of the American Triple Crown.  They are:

• ·         Sir Barton in 1919
• ·         Gallant Fox 1930
• ·         Omaha, son of Gallant Fox, in 1935
• ·         War Admiral, son of Man o’ War, in 1937
• ·         Whirlaway in 1941
• ·         Count Fleet in 1943
• ·         Assault in 1946
• ·         Citation in 1948
• ·         Secretariat in 1973
• ·         Seattle Slew in 1977
• ·         Affirmed in 1978

And, oh yeah -- in 2015 American Pharoah came out nowhere to sweep the Triple Crown and a newfangled race called the Breeder's Cup Classic.

There have been many speculations as to why so few have won the Triple Crown, as opposed to 13 winners for the English version.  The main theories are that it is just too much to ask for a three-year-old thoroughbred; the rise of international travel which makes more thoroughbreds able to compete in the races and the deterioration of the thoroughbred’s overall health as a breed.

Image of the Triple Crown trophy from Wikimedia Commons.

Life of a Racehorse: Retraining after Retirement

If the racehorse has survived a racing career....

To train a racehorse is a complicated process.  Horses cannot experience a sudden change of diet and exercise without risk of potentially lethal colic.  Therefore, Thoroughbreds destined for retirement and a new life outside of the racetrack need their diets and exercise levels gradually tapered off before they can go into retraining.

Thoroughbreds live an average of 30 years but usually are retired from flat racing when they are just five and from jumps racing when they are teenagers.  Only champion mares and stallions head for a new life in the breeding shed.  But the majority of racehorses are geldings or neutered males.  Although they cannot breed, their calmer temperaments make them excellent candidates for retraining for pleasure riding or driving in harness.

Challenges Ahead

It is a popular misconception that all racehorses are retired due to untreatable injuries.  Although injuries may occur to prompt a racehorse trainer’s decision to retire a horse, not all retired racehorses are lame or sick.  Some are retired just because the horses are too slow for competitive racing.  Some have treatable illnesses.  Within a year, they can be sound and ready for their new careers.

It is also a popular misconception thatThoroughbreds are crazy.  The high-energy diets that racers need leads to high-energy horses.  This is why a retired Thoroughbred needs to gradually have his grain rations reduced so he is not so full of excess energy.  Thoroughbreds are intelligent creatures that are curious about their surroundings and love food.  They are willing to learn new things if given a small food reward like a chunk of carrot.

What Retired Racehorses Can Do

Racehorses need to unlearn some habits that the track taught them.  Training a racehorse to be a calm pleasure mount means training the horse as if he never has been ridden before.  Many racehorses equate the weight of a rider with running as fast as possible.  But gradually the horse will learn to wait for a rider’s cues before walking, trotting or running.

Once a retired racehorse learns the basics of responding to bridle commands on a lunge line and walking under a rider without breaking out into a gallop, then he is ready for just about anything his new career demands.  Ex-racehorses can be found doing tricks for the movies, carrying police officers for crowd control and given riding lessons to the physically and mentally challenged.  But the majority will go on to be pleasure mounts and compete in sporting events like hunting and dressage.

Conclusion

The end of a racing career does not mean the end of a racehorse’s life.  Retired racehorses are suitable for a wide variety of future careers.  Training a racehorse for a new life is first started by a racehorse trainer and then to trainers and volunteers in horse rescue organizations.  There are many sound and sensible ex-racehorses ready for adoption.

Recommended Reading

• ·         Beyond the Track: Retraining the Thoroughbred from Racehorse to Riding Horse. Anna Ford and Amber Heintzberger.  Trafalger Square Books; 2008.
• ·         HorseChannel. “Starting with Off-the-Track Thoroughbreds.”  Cindy Hale.  September 2007. 
• ·         Steuart Pitman.  “Retraining Thoroughbreds for Dressage.”  Dressage Today. January, 2013.

Why Didn’t Man o’ War Run in the Kentucky Derby?

Man o’ War (1917 – 1947) is widely considered to be the best thoroughbred racehorse bred in America.  He would be voted the “Horse of the Century” by the venerable racing magazine, The Blood-Horse.  He won two-thirds of the American Triple Crown -- the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.  But he never ran in the Kentucky Derby.  Why?

“The mostest hoss that ever was.”  This was how stud groom Will Harbut described Man o’ War (1917 – 1974.)  History would agree with Harbut.  The Blood-Horse would list Man o’ War as “The Horse of the Century.”  In his career, “Big Red” won 20 of 21 races and broke eight speed records.  He drew huge throngs of admirers to the tracks.  Many horse owners would not race their horses against him.  Visiting him in retirement was considered a pilgrimage by racing fans.  He would sire the Triple Crown champion War Admiral.

Yet America’s best racehorse never ran in America’s most famous race – the Kentucky Derby.  This was not due to injury.  Man o’ War’s first start at the age of three was in the Preakness Stakes.  Man o’ war’s owner, Samuel Riddle, purposefully kept his champion out of the Kentucky Derby (open only to three-year-olds.)  Why wasn’t he entered?

Scheduling

In 1920, the year Man o’ War was three, the Kentucky Derby was scheduled a mere eight days before the Preakness Stakes.  Back in 1920, racing twice a week was normal for most race horses.  Riddle would also campaign his horses this hard.  As a two-year-old, Man o’ War often had mere days to rest in between races.

But Riddle clearly thought that the Preakness and Belmont were far more prestigious races.  He wanted the pleasure of watching his champion colt trounce his competition close to his homes in Saratoga, New York and Glen Riddle, Pennsylvania.  There were no commercial airplane flights back in 1920.  You drove or took the train to get from one state to another.

Red’s Actual Age

Man o’ War actually turned three on March 29, 1920.  Due to the laws of Thoroughbred racing, all Thoroughbreds have an official birthday of January 1.  The argument was that this made it easier on the sport and made it easier for eligibility in age-restricted races.  In this way, the betting public would always know how old a horse was. 

Horses are not physically mature until they are five.  However, racing tradition demands that immature thoroughbreds begin running and making money for their owners as soon as they can carry a rider.  Riddle believed that Man o’ War was too young to run the Kentucky Derby distance of 1 ¼ miles.  The Preakness was shorter at 1 1/8 miles.

What Triple Crown?

In modern times, winning the Triple Crown is the Holy Grail of American turf racing.  But there was no Triple Crown back in 1920.  The term was not coined until the 1930s, when sports writer Bryan Field suggested strongly that America needed to have their own version of England’s Triple Crown. 

Man o’ War did not compete for the Triple Crown in 1920 because there simply was no Triple Crown then.  The Kentucky Derby was not seen as prestigious to race horse owners of the Northeast because it was a Southern race.

References

• Man o’ War: A Legend Like Lightning.  Dorothy Ours.  St. Martin’s Press; 2006.
• Man o’ War.  Page Cooper and Roger Treat.  Westholme Publishing 2004 (originally released in 1950.)
• Portraits of Kentucky Derby Winners: A 120-Year History.  Beverly Bryant.  HCI; 1995.

If I Won the Lottery: Open a Racehorse Retirement Rescue

If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t stay in the crowded horseless suburbs I live in.  I’d move out to the country, buy one of the many farms going into bankruptcy and turn it into a racehorse retirement home.  I may stay in my home state or move to another state, depending on how much I won and how close good vet care would be.

Taking proper care of horses is expensive.  They need good food, hay, pasture to roam, a warm stable and quality vet care, including a yearly dental check-up.  They also need companionship.  It would drain all of my winnings, even if I won several million dollars.  If I could only save one horse, it would be worth spending all my lottery winnings on.

Why Race Horses?

I used to love horse racing.  All anyone needed to do was shout out a year and I’d tell them what horse won the Kentucky Derby that year and who rode the horse.  Once, when I was homeless in England, I wound up winning big when a 33-1 longshot named Red Marauder won the prestigious Grand National. (Pictured above.)  

But now I have a love-hate relationship with racing.  I hate the inbreeding, the drug use, the complete disregard for the fragility of young horses and especially the way horses are discarded when they can no longer race.  Horses live to an average of 30 years, but ex-racers are dumped like garbage.  Even 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand was sent to a slaughterhouse.

I love the horses, though.  I love their courage, their beauty, their obedience even when they are being run to death.  None of those horses deserves to be treated like garbage, disposed of at the whim of their owners or trainers.  Perhaps guilt makes me want to open a retirement home for racehorses.  Perhaps it’s because horses are like dreams on legs and I’m sick of my nightmares.

Easy Does It

The best way to set up a retirement home for racehorses would be turn my farm into a charity instead of a business.  This way it could carry on after the lottery money dried up and could even carry on after my death.  However, it costs a lot of money to set up a charity.  The paperwork is staggering.  I would need to hire a lawyer in order to set the charity up. 

I’d then have to know my limits.  I’d have to accept only a few horses and no more.  Many animal rescues start with good intentions and then take on far too many animals that the manpower or the space can handle.  It then becomes a hoarding situation and the animals are worse off than before.

Unlike many other excellent racehorse rehabilitation charities that retrain horses to other jobs, my charity would be for no-hope horses too lame or too injured to be ridden or pull a buggy.  Retraining racehorses requires land for a riding ring, a well-stocked tack room and a trainer familiar with ex-racehorses.  I’d rather concentrate on saving horses considered no-hopers by other horse rescue groups.