Triple Crown Winners

Triple Crown Horse Racing

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For the owners, trainers and jockeys of the world's best three-year-old thoroughbreds, it doesn't get any bigger than winning the Triple Crown. In order to win the Triple Crown, however, a thoroughbred horse would have to win three of the biggest stakes races in the world: the Kentucky Derby, which takes place annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky; the Preakness Stakes, which takes place annually the third Saturday of May at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Belmont Stakes, which takes place every year in early June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

The first of the Triple Crown races is the Kentucky Derby, which was first won in 1875 by Archemdes. The Kentucky Derby winner goes on to compete in the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. Survivor was the first Preakness winner in 1873. A Derby-Preakness winner can then claim the coveted Triple Crown title by winning the Belmont Stakes, which was first won by Ruthless in 1867.

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Triple Crown History

It was Daily Racing Form (DRF) sportswriter Charles Hatton who coined the term "Triple Crown" in a 1930 article he wrote about Gallant Fox, the second horse ever to win the Triple Crown. The first horse to win the Triple Crown, Sir Barton, in 1919, actually won it 11 years before the term came into use.

Although it is recognized as horse racing's greatest honor, throughout its 125-year history there have been only 11 Triple Crown winners.

It may surprise more than a few horse racing fans to learn that Seabiscuit, the unlikely thoroughbred champion who rose to fame during the Great Depression and whose life was made into a bestselling book and movie, did not win the Triple Crown. Seabiscuit did, however, become the biggest story to hit the newspapers in 1938 by overcoming insurmountable odds, earning $437,730 over the course of his illustrious career. Seabiscuit died of a heart attack on May 17, 1947.

List of Winning Triple Crown Horses

After Citation's win in 1948, it would take another 25 years before another horse would go down in the history books as a Triple Crown winner. That winning horse would be Secretariat, a thoroughbred that had it all: speed, good looks and a winning personality.

Secretariat appeared on the tracks in 1973, breaking all previously set records and finally winning the Triple Crown - bringing back much of the thrill and excitement that surrounded horse racing during the early days. Horse racing was once again on its way to becoming one of America's biggest spectator sports.

Triple Crown history would not be made again until Affirmed, a thoroughbred out of Harbor View Farm in Florida with 22 first place finishes and total earnings of $2,393,818 (the first thoroughbred to break the $2 million mark), won it in 1978.

Close to 50 horses have come close since 1978, including Afleet Alex, who won the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in 2005, and Smarty Jones, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2004.

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