Horse racing's Triple Crown may be dead in the water

Over the last few years, the concept of winning the Triple Crown has been fading among horse racing’s stakeholders.

>On Monday, Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association might have delivered its death blow.

>In announcing a joint partnership for a six-race series beginning in 2027 with a $5 million bonus attached to the end of it, one entity was notably missing: The Preakness.

>The six races will cover the Kentucky Derby on May 2; the Belmont Stakes on June 5; back to Churchill for the Matt Winn stakes in early July; the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes at Saratoga in late July/August; and then a newly created race to finish the series at Churchill in September.

>As for the Preakness, the second jewel of the Triple Crown? Well, it still exists, but the traditional timing of the race — two weeks after the Kentucky Derby — has become incompatible with the way modern trainers manage their thoroughbreds. Golden Tempo and Sovereignty, the last two Derby winners, both skipped the Preakness, as did Rich Strike in 2022.

>Sources told Yahoo Sports that the Maryland Jockey Club was close to announcing a move that would have pushed the Preakness to three weeks after the Kentucky Derby. But Monday’s announcement — which leaves the Belmont in its traditional placement five weeks after the Derby — suggests the coordination among Triple Crown stakeholders was only a two-way conversation with Maryland being frozen out.

>As one industry source told Yahoo Sports: “The bigger picture here is the wider future of the sport, and Maryland just ain’t it. You could still run in the Preakness and win the series, but Maryland is on an island. They’re by themselves. They run one big race a year. We can’t let these traditional elements of the sport be anchors for its future, and you can argue we’ve let it go on for too long.”

>The announcement exposes multiple miscalculations by the Maryland government, which took over ownership of Pimlico Race Course through its stadium authority, promising to tear down its dilapidated grandstand and build a new $400 million project to be the state’s permanent home of horse racing in the heart of Baltimore. That project is ongoing, with the Preakness scheduled to return to Pimlico next year after being run this year at Laurel Park.

>In April, Churchill Downs Inc. agreed to purchase the Preakness’ intellectual property rights for $85 million from the Stronach Group, which previously owned the racetrack. At the time, that announcement suggested a reimagined Triple Crown where Churchill would have significant control over the timing of the first two legs, including the ability to tie both races together in a future television rights deal. That could have squeezed NYRA into a corner over when the Belmont would be run.

>But instead of allowing that deal to go through, Maryland decided to exercise its right of first refusal and pay the $85 million to retain those intellectual property rights in a deal that was finalized last week.

>"With this final acquisition we are not only leveraging the Preakness's iconic status and uplifting our horse racing industry, we are revitalizing the communities that directly benefit from the economic opportunities of the race,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement.

>But the new Churchill-NYRA partnership, which also shares the six races across NBC and FOX through their existing broadcast relationships, presents a much different vision of the sport. Though the Triple Crown will still exist, most of the incentives will be for trainers and owners to follow the path of the six-race series with a points structure determining who wins the $5 million at the end.

>And with the Belmont standing firm on its date in June, moving the Preakness to three weeks after the Derby might be even more problematic than its current placement. Horses that try to contest all three would only have two weeks between the Preakness and the 1 ½-mile Belmont, making it highly unlikely horses would run in both.

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>Among the other losers in this arrangement: The Haskell at Monmouth Park, which has traditionally been the first big 3-year-old race in July after the Triple Crown.

>“This wouldn’t have come together the way it did if the Preakness bid had gone through [for Churchill]” the industry source said. “Churchill and NYRA drive the sport. The Haskell is a big deal, but it can’t be as big as it once was naturally. It’s just where we are. And that’s where the Preakness fell too.”

>But to squeeze out Maryland like this is a rare proactive and bold move for horse racing, which has typically adapted to the changing landscape of the sport at a snail’s pace. And it will surely cause controversy with traditionalists who have fought against the waning influence of the Triple Crown as a series since it was won by American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.

>The new series, however, has a fan in prominent owner Mike Repole, an outspoken critic of the sport’s establishment who won last weekend’s Jim Dandy with Renegade.

>“I applaud @ChurchillDowns and @TheNYRA for working together in the best interests of the sport and for recognizing that evolution requires innovation, real change and the courage to do things differently,” Repole wrote on X. “NBC and FOX working together to broadcast this series is another great example of exactly what this industry needs: major organizations putting competition aside, breaking down silos and collaborating to create something bigger, better and more exciting for the entire sport.”