People usually frequent race tracks for one of two reasons: (1) to bet, (2) to enjoy the competition of four-legged, half-ton “athletes” who run faster than any human, with a human on their backs.
The former is often driven by misguided greed, the latter more by which horse won than by how much he pays. While I’ve participated in both demographics, it’s the “majors” — the Triple Crown — that make me a horse racing fanatic at this time of year.
But racing’s losing me.
The Preakness goes Saturday in Baltimore. It’s the weak sister of the three, sandwiched between the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. The Derby sets the stage for a Triple Crown winner, the Belmont is what ultimately wins it. As much as The Preakness is necessary, it’s often the most irrelevant.
Especially this weekend.
There will be no Triple Crown in 2025, because Derby winner Sovereignty won’t be there. While there are many reasons for horses to skip the Preakness, Sovereignty’s owners are taking a pass for “the best interest of the horse.” Just wondering… did anybody ask Sovereignty about his one shot at the Triple Crown?
He’s not the first Derby winner to avoid Pimlico, the track that’s home to the Preakness, but it’s the fourth time in the last seven years. Past reasons have varied from career-ending injuries to not being “nominated” to not winning the Derby until after The Preakness was over — there was a disqualification. However, the main reason Derby winners skip it is because there’s only two weeks until The Preakness and three more until the Belmont… three major races in five weeks. Even golfers don’t rush their majors like that, and they only walk.
I’ve covered one Triple Crown race, the 1978 Derby. After Affirmed won, I was glued to the TV for the next two races that “Affirmed” the Triple Crown. When Secretariat became the third Triple Crown champion in six years in 1973, ending a 25-year drought (Citation 1948), I was standing in front of the TV cheering him — with my sons pleading to watch The Bionic Woman — to his 31-length clinching victory in the Belmont. And I didn’t even have a winning ticket!
Horse racing is widely considered to be on life support, its place as a major “sport” always debatable, and always ratified by races like these. Today, admission to a racetrack is usually free. Slot machines prop up an industry that was built on prop bets. Occasional bettors whose interest was motivated by the attraction of a Triple Crown, like me, are slipping away.
Sovereignty’s trainer, Bill Mott, said “You want the career to last more than five weeks.” The logical change that might preserve the likelihood of more Triple Crowns, voiced to deaf ears for years, is to have the Kentucky Derby in May, the Preakness in June and the Belmont Stakes in July.
I did have a winning ticket for this year’s Derby. With a seasoned handicapper’s impeccable logic, I bet Sovereignty only because Canada’s was being questioned. Without Sovereignty on Saturday, chances are I won’t even watch.
There have been just 13 Triple Crown winners, the last one called Justify, in 2018. Will there ever be a 14th?
