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Horse Racing Triple Crown
The Triple Crown is the
rare feat of winning the top three races - the Kentucky
Derby, Preakness
Stakes, and Belmont
Stakes. Dubbed the royal jewel of horse racing
in America and is the pinnacle for three-year-olds
(colts, fillies, geldings) and horse breeders.
In its history, only 11 horses have won the Triple
Crown, while 21 hopefuls finished only one win shy
from the honor. The last horse to capture the crown
was Affirmed in 1978.
Although horse racing has been a favorite American
sport since the 1700s, the phrase "Triple Crown"
was only coined in 1930 when a horse named Gallant
Fox won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.
It was sportswriter Charles Hutton who brought the
phrase into American usage, comparing the conquest
to England's own Triple Crown races - the Two Thousand
Guineas, the Derby, and St. Leger.
The decade of the 1930s produced three Triple Crown
winners: Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), and War
Admiral (!937). Omaha was sired by Gallant Fox,
who is the only Triple Crown winner to sire another
Triple Crown champion.
The next decade produced four Triple Crown victors:
Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946),
and Citation (1948). It took another 25 years before
Secretariat broke the silence who in 1973 took the
Triple Crown honor out of the cobwebs.
Here's the complete list of all Triple Crown winners,
and those who nearly embraced it but fell short. |
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