How Would a Triple Crown Winner Change Racing?

In the most recent edition of HorseCenter, Brian Zipse and I entertained the notion of what might change in horse racing if the long-awaited quest for the Triple Crown is completed by American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes on June 6. How would racing’s dialogue be impacted by the completion of the sport’s most sought after prize?

Typically, after the running of the Belmont Stakes, the dialogue in racing shifts to the Breeders’ Cup, the sport’s year-end championships. However, there has not been a Triple Crown winner since the Breeders’ Cup was inaugurated in 1984. So if American Pharoah wins, this will be uncharted territory.

Without a Triple Crown winner since 1984, the racing chatter every summer and fall has been focused on the sport’s biggest race, the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the impact that the race would have on the Horse of the Year title. If American Pharoah wins the Triple Crown, he and his connections will also lock up several end of the year Eclipse Awards.

It will not matter what happens in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Whitney, or the Pacific Classic because American Pharoah will be named Horse of the Year. Every Triple Crown winner, since War Admiral in 1937, has won the Horse of the Year title, which was first awarded in 1936.

The Jim Dandy, the Haskell, the Travers, and the Pennsylvania Derby will lose some of their importance as the Eclipse Award for three-year-old champion would also be decided if American Pharoah wins the Triple Crown.

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On the human side there is little doubt that Bob Baffert would receive the Eclipse Award for Top Trainer and the Zayats would get the Award for Top Owners and Top Breeders. Also, Victor Espinoza would have a chance to take the Top Jockey Eclipse away from Javier Castellano, who has day in and day out been the best American rider for the past three years.

Also, the current Triple Crown Trophy, that was first made in 1950 by the internationally renowned Cartier Jewelry Company, would no longer be found on display in the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs in Louisville. This particular trophy, which has travelled to Belmont Park 13 previous times since 1978, would now have a home with the Zayats in New Jersey.

Finally, if American Pharoah does win in New York in two weeks, at the end of this year, the calendar will still flip and the Road to the Kentucky Derby 2016 will commence, but with new questions. Will we have to wait another 37 years for the next Triple Crown or will this decade play out like the 1970’s with multiple winners of the Crown?