Current TC Spacing Dates Back to 1969

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by Danzig

Its three in a nine year span since they made the change, and a lot of close calls. A lot. Not just derby/Preakness combos either. Others took two of thee pretty often. Swale, riva ridge, risen star, afleet Alex, point given off the top of my head. Spacing is not an issue.

Exactly.

It's ludicrous, some of the arguments on here, about how it's the time between racing causing the lack of TC winners.

So many times, racing circumstances were what prevented the sweep. Sometimes a better horse came along to deny the Triple Crown (Touch Gold for instance), or really bad race circumstances (Afleet Alex).

Heck, just look at Touch Gold again. I could make a case that with a little luck, he might have won the Triple Crown. He was best in both the Belmont and Preakness, and if my old memory serves me correctly, he didn't run in the Derby because he lacked earnings. I could be mistaken there, but still, he was the best horse in both the Preakness and Belmont.

I recently posted a list of the last twelve or so horses going for the sweep in the Belmont, and things that happened to them that contributed to their losses. All Rupert did was summarily dismiss these things and then spend the next month reiterating that the 2-3 week format was to blame.

For certain, Point Given, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex and Real Quiet would have won the TC if it were not for jockey shenanigans. I don't even know how that can be countered.

War Emblem and Alysheba I think had legitimate excuses, but I can't say for certain they would have won or not.

Hell, I even think that had Barbaro not broken down out of the gate (nothing to do with race spacing), he'd have completed the sweep, overrated and overhyped Bernardini notwithstanding.

The arguments in favor of spacing are empty and easily beaten with simple logic and reasoning!

How on Earth did Point Given and Afleet Alex manage to win the Preakness and Belmont after running such monster losing races (due to jockey ineptness) in the Derby??????

The best race Smarty Jones ever ran was his lone loss in the Belmont!

All this leads me to the conclusion that some people are hopeless contrarians. I just never thought I'd be seeing Rupert in the starring role of King Glorious in this particular movie.