For things to happen, there needs to be a catalyst. Without one, there is often no progress.
As long as we can remember, horse racing’s Triple Crown consists of three races in a five-week span. It starts the first Saturday with the Kentucky Derby; two weeks later, it’s the Preakness Stakes; and then three weeks after the race in Baltimore, the Belmont Stakes.
I like the way it is, not so much for tradition, but because it keeps horse racing relevant through the month of May and into early June. But I must admit, it might be time to change the spacing of races to ensure the best (and most) 3-year-olds are in the starting gates for all three races.
Sovereignty captured a thrilling Kentucky Derby, but here it is, Tuesday morning, and trainer Bill Mott (and the other connections associated with the horse) are still unsure of sending the talented colt to Pimlico for the Preakness Stakes. What other sport has this situation? Would a healthy golfer skip the US Open after winning the PGA Championship?
The fact that Mott is reluctant to commit a seemingly healthy horse sends signals to those who love horse racing and want the sport to be relevant going forward. Because horses are trained and cared for differently, it prevents the Hall-of-Fame trainer from declaring in the Derby winner’s circle: “if he comes out healthy, he’s going to the Preakness.”
Today’s trainers are not interested in running back in the Preakness. They need more time between starts, at least three weeks, if not four to six or even eight. Trainers prefer workouts over races. Most are fine with the five-week gap between the Derby and the Belmont and many of the horses we saw in the Derby will run in the Saratoga version of the Belmont Stakes, at 1 ¼ miles.
The Preakness will still assemble a good field. I said good, but it won’t be great; in essence, it might be nothing more than a nice Grade II race with a hefty purse. Deep down, Preakness officials are perturbed. They’re seeing their horse race skipped over, treated like a flyover state as one travels from New York to California. They want their race to be as good as the one before it and the one after.
We all remember Affirmed beating Alydar and Sunday Silence edging Easy Goer in 1978 and 1989 respectively. Those horses went 1-2 in the Derby and as fans, we couldn’t wait to see the rematch just two weeks later.
This year’s Derby was a fantastic race and if the calendar said 1990 instead of 2025, we’d get the rematch in the Preakness. But we know that Journalism will skip Pimlico to prepare for the Belmont; that’s thoroughbred racing today.
At some point, Preakness officials are going to make a move. There is no governing body for the Triple Crown. The Crown was never designated; it just kind of happened. While the Derby is the most important and prestigious United States horse race, the Preakness and the Belmont are not two and three. In fact, the Preakness might be outside of the top ten if you talk to those in the horse racing game.
If Preakness officials moved their race to July 5, it would still be part of the Triple Crown and horses that raced in the May 3 Derby and June 7 Belmont would still come to Baltimore to race. As we saw during Covid, order really doesn’t matter.
For change to take place, something major needs to happen and it will happen once this year’s Preakness is over. And those that run Maryland racing have a ready-made reason to foster such a change.
Pimlico Race Course opened in 1870 and in short, it’s a dumpy track in a dumpy neighborhood. How bad is it? In recent years, the Pimlico racing season consisted of 12 days: this year, it’s just six.
However, after this year’s Preakness, Old Hilltop is getting torn down to make way for New Hilltop. The cost will be at least $500 million, and not only will the racetrack be shiny and new, there are grand plans to develop the Park Heights neighborhood that surrounds the track, something that is very much needed.
This would be the perfect time for Maryland officials to go to bat for its signature race. The statement is simple: “we’re building a $500 million track and for our signature race, we want the best horses racing in it and beginning in 2027, the Preakness Stakes will be run either four or eight weeks after the Kentucky Derby, contingent on discussions with NYRA, the association in charge of the Belmont Stakes.”
How can those that will run the new Pimlico settle for a second-class race? How can they spend $500 million or more to build a new track just to have the Federico Tesio winner in the field but not the Kentucky Derby champ?
The new track represents a new era, so why not start a new tradition? Ideally, the Belmont would agree to move, so you can have that 1 ½ mile test at the end of the Triple Crown campaign, but if they don’t budge, the Preakness would be more than happy to do so.
The Derby would remain the first Saturday in May, then, depending on the calendar, the Preakness moves to the last Saturday in May or the first Saturday in June. The Belmont would then take place on the first Saturday in July. There would be four weeks between the Derby and the Preakness and then five between the Preakness and Belmont. Not all Derby horses would run all three legs, but with this gap, Sovereignty, Journalism, and Baeza would be likely participants.
If this change does indeed happen, there will be an outcry but change always creates that. The game has changed; horses are bred differently and they’re not as durable as they were “back in the day,” but the Triple Crown is the time for horse racing to shine. The top golfers play all the majors, yet in horse racing, the top horses don’t.
The new track can change that. The track can serve as the new beginning and once we get another 1978 or 1989, those that protested the change will be basking in delight with this new format.