Introducing a Triple Crown for Four/Five Year Olds

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by Coup Verville

AK certainly. Maybe Big Brown had he stuck around for his 4 year old season. Palace Malice wouldn't be completely out of his element trying to pull it off this year.

Curlin I guess. He lost his only turf race to Red Rocks, but Red Rocks was pretty good at times. Im not sure 8f would have worked for Curlin though. Hard Spun.... I loved Hard Spun, he was very versatile on dirt and ran well on synthetics.

[Kasept]

There was a Handicap Triple Crown for decades.. The Met, Brooklyn and Suburban. Tom Fool, Kelso and Fit to Fight won it.

There was/is the Triple Tiara too which in various guises includes the Acorn, Mother Goose, CCA Oaks and Alabama. A number of great fillies have won it including Chris Evert, Ruffian and Mom's Command.

The Triple Crown works because it's a fixture on the American sports calendar. Duplicating it's success is difficult. The Jockey Club Tour on Fox will be expanding its' offering next season and beyond and probably has the best opportunity at organically building a series of races that can be tied together along the lines of the American Championship Racing Series that Devonshirehanover references. A big money overwrap like Visa's Triple Crown Bonus would speed things along.

Going back to three years olds though, I've always thought a summer Triple Crown of the Haskell, Pennsylvania Derby and Travers had potential to be a hit.

[ScottJ]

Thank you to everyone for sharing their thoughts. All too often, we lament three years olds being pulled off the track and immediately put into sire duties. Then, we similarly grouse that unsound horses (those pulled from the track due to injury) are becoming baselines in the breeding - effectively, breeding infirmity into the sport.

So, you need to incent horses/owners to remain in training into their four and five year old seasons. As a New York racing fan, I certainly remember the handicap triple crown and the triple tiara. However, these do not have any national audience nor are they generally highlighted as their own entities sufficiently in New York. New York marketing is now focused on big single days - like the Stars and Stripes - perhaps that is the evolution of the game right before our eyes.

The goal is to make the four and five year old seasons so valuable that horses remain in training to take a shot at the bigger prizes over a period of time. While strong sires might not truly be identified until a decade from now, the first steps would be taken to strengthen the sport's recognition, broaden media coverage into the later summer, strengthen bloodlines, and move the older horses from one glory day (Breeder's Cup) onto several at a national level.

[Danzig]

maybe they should start offering incentives for gelding more horses.

[Pants II]

I get the intent...but it's not a good idea.

Today's super trainer can barely keep them running through their 3 year old campaign.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by ScottJ

The goal is to make the four and five year old seasons so valuable that horses remain in training to take a shot at the bigger prizes over a period of time. While strong sires might not truly be identified until a decade from now, the first steps would be taken to strengthen the sport's recognition, broaden media coverage into the later summer, strengthen bloodlines, and move the older horses from one glory day (Breeder's Cup) onto several at a national level.

Are there really that many 3-year-olds retiring purely for stud dollars now, though? It seems like the breeding market hasn't really recovered from the economic downturn and a lot of the top 3-year-olds have been returning. The ones that have been retiring at 3 seem to either have an injury that will take long enough to recover from that a 4-year-old campaign would be abbreviated anyway, or to have already peaked (Orb looks up, blushes, looks down) and they don't want to further depreciate the horse's value.

As a fan, I of course love the idea of a TC for older horses, but it would be very hard to get three different tracks to coordinate races, and it would be hard to sustain public interest in races that would likely be 5 weeks apart each. Part of what makes the TC work for the general public is that it all happens in 5 weeks total.

[ghartman02]

Slew O Gold won the last triple in New York, which I believe was the Marlboro Cup, The Woodward, and The Jockey Club Gold Cup. I was there that day (it was a rainy day), and I think the 10,000 or so there were the only people that cared. I also remember Mom's Command winning a filly triple, the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Coaching Club of America Stakes.
I think what differentiates the current Triple Crown is you have 1 shot. Having said that, I think if the Triple Crown was to be spaced out a little more, you could have THE Triple Crown (Derby Preakness and Belmont); on Friday have the Filly Triple Crown (Derby, Black Eyed Susan, Coaching Club); A Turf Triple (Woodford, Dixie, Manhattan). Uh oh, I went Triple crazy didn't I!

[Mack]

Here is the list of G1s for the Handicap division excluding races on turf and mile races (Cigar Mile and BC Dirt Mile excluded, keeping Met Mile).

DONN
SANTA ANITA H.
MET MILE
STEPHEN FOSTER
WHITNEY
PACIFIC CLASSIC
WOODWARD
JC GOLD CUP
AWESOME AGAIN
BC CLASSIC
CLARK

No offense, but right off the bat, you'd toss the Donn, the Stephen Foster, and the Clark. The Big Cap is hard to toss, but since the BC is so frequently at SA, and with that being the finisher, you'd probably throw that out as well.

Maybe an 8f, 9f, 10f progression, finishing with the BC Classic.

My vote would be Met Mile, Whitney/Woodward, BC Classic. So you've got a June/August/November calendar.

1st, to the history buffs, what horse(s) has already done this?

2nd, this obviously wouldn't capture national spotlight but would be fun for race fans.

3rd, this looks like Palace Malice's current plan. So let's root him on for the Senior Triple Crown (sorry, crappy name).

EDIT: Just realized that having first two legs as NYRA probably wouldn't fly politically. Still needs tweaking!

[tector]

When Meydan goes back to dirt, all the top older US dirt horses will try to get there...and be on the shelf for months afterwards, coming back to prep for the BC.