OT: Triple Crown of Horse Racing

In my opinion
The chance of having a Triple Crown winner increases interest in the Preakness and Belmont .
When a derby winner passes up the Preakness , that race loses a lot of interest for those that follow the ponies.
The Belmont also is affected, but if the Preakness and Derby winners are in it, the Belmont gains some interest but not as much as if one of the entrants has won two legs of the crown.

While I'm personally not a fan of dumbing down sports so that, for example, every football game is a 49-47 "classic" with 950 yards of total offense, I know that's the way things have been going in professional sports for quite some time. I have no doubt that the racing industry will do what's required to have more Triple Crown winners because it's "exciting." I know I'm in the minority and that all you dudes in this thread know your racing...

dconifer0 said:

While I'm personally not a fan of dumbing down sports so that, for example, every football game is a 49-47 "classic" with 950 yards of total offense, I know that's the way things have been going in professional sports for quite some time. I have no doubt that the racing industry will do what's required to have more Triple Crown winners because it's "exciting." I know I'm in the minority and that all you dudes in this thread know your racing...

Click to expand...

The talk now is that triple crown races are two close together.
The Derby to the Preakness time is two weeks
Preakness to Belmont is 3.
I would bet , in order to have the Derby winner race in the Preakness the length of tome for each race would be a month.
The first Saturated in May: Derby
First Sat in June > Preakness
First Saturday in July_ Belmont ( or make it on July 4th.)
Putting a month between races should end the too soon excuse .

MADHAT1 said:

The talk now is that triple crown races are two close together.
The Derby to the Preakness time is two weeks
Preakness to Belmont is 3.
I would bet , in order to have the Derby winner race in the Preakness the length of tome for each race would be a month.
The first Saturated in May: Derby
First Sat in June > Preakness
First Saturday in July_ Belmont ( or make it on July 4th.)
Putting a month between races should end the too soon excuse .

Click to expand...

Bingo!

MADHAT1 said:

The talk now is that triple crown races are two close together.
The Derby to the Preakness time is two weeks
Preakness to Belmont is 3.
I would bet , in order to have the Derby winner race in the Preakness the length of tome for each race would be a month.
The first Saturated in May: Derby
First Sat in June > Preakness
First Saturday in July_ Belmont ( or make it on July 4th.)
Putting a month between races should end the too soon excuse .

Click to expand...

Right. They'll make the Triple Crown easier to win (missing the point of what it used to take to win it) and Joe Sportsfan will be excited about it...

dconifer0 said:

Right. They'll make the Triple Crown easier to win (missing the point of what it used to take to win it) and Joe Sportsfan will be excited about it...

Click to expand...

I believe the way Horses are being breed now has a lot to do with all the whining about length of time between the Derby and Preakness.
For awhile now Breeders are putting a premium on speed now,more then years ago, and looking for their top horses to go to stud a lot earlier that it used to be for the best horses racing.
Years ago Breeders bred their horses for stamina as well as speed, thinking of long racing careers for their top horses before being turned out to stud

So most of today's horses have not been bred with the stamina that old time race horses had bred into them and are more prone to injury if they aren't properly rested between races .
To save the thril of thinking triple crown for derby winners, I wouldn't complain about 3-4 weeks between the Derby and Preakness.
Right now it's 3 weeks between the Preakness and Belmont.

from a google search to make sure I had it right about career, because some of the old time winners I remember went to stud faster than I implied horses did years ago.
>Twenty years ago, elite racehorses were raced more frequently, routinely competing up to 10-12 times a year and often continuing their racing careers through ages 5 or 6. Today, top horses have significantly shorter, heavily managed campaigns, averaging around 4-6 starts per year and frequently retiring to stud by age 4<