Triple Crown winner Justify ends another of sports' major droughts
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Just three years removed from an accomplishment that once left people wondering whether we'd see it again, Justify has won the Triple Crown. What American Pharoah did in 2015 was special. What Justify did, adding to it with such a compact campaign, was highly unexpected.
Both ended lengthy droughts in horse racing to create an unforgettable event, not unlike we've seen across other sports in recent memory.
Since 2004, when the Boston Red Sox finally ended the dreaded Curse of the Bambino, which dated back to 1918, a new era in sports emerged and has yet to slow down. The following season in Major League Baseball it was the White Sox' turn. The 2005 World Series was the first for Chicago's South Side team since 1917.
In 2007, the Indianapolis Colts won their first Super Bowl and the franchise's first since the days of Baltimore in 1970. In 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies ended a 28-year-old drought and two years later the San Francisco Giants won their first World Series title since it belonged to their home in New York in 1954. In 2010 the Chicago Blackhawks held the Stanley Cup again for the first time since 1961, and the following season the Bruins returned it to Boston for the first time since 1971.
The love for the winless stretched even further that same year when the city of New Orleans finally won its first ever professional championship as their Saints marched home to a Super Bowl victory over their beloved son, Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts. Fast forward to 2016, and it was the city of Cleveland that finally broke a curse of their own when the Cavaliers brought home a championship to Believeland for the first time in 54 years.
Up next was the granddaddy of them all. In the fall of 2016, the lovable losers known as the Chicago Cubs stormed past the curse of the Billy Goat to claim their first World Series title since 1908.
Other notable droughts or curses that have found a way to end include the Washington Capitals in this year's Stanley Cup Finals, the first-ever in franchise history. Earlier this year, the Philadelphia Eagles soared in Super Bowl in LII to win their first championship since 1960. In 2017 the Houston Astros won their first World Series; in 2015 the Kansas City Royals ended a 30-year drought; and in 2013 the Seattle Seahawks earned their first Lombardy Trophy.
Something so noticeable and often remarkable about the droughts we experience in sports: After it finally rains, it usually pours.
Following the Boston Red Sox World Series in 2004, they went on to win two more. After the Golden State Warriors won their first title since 1975 in 2015, they notched their third championship in four years last week. In 2012, the Los Angeles Kings won their very first Stanley Cup and were good enough to do it again in 2014. And who can forget Phil Mickelson, the super talented golfer that couldn't win a major? Since Lefty first wore the green jacket in 2004, he's added two more, plus one win in the British Open and one in the PGA Championship.
And now, the impossible feat of a Triple Crown has already happened again after American Pharoah finally became the first to do it since Affirmed in 1978. Yet, this one was unique in its own way and it begins with a drought unlike any other: the Apollo Curse.
Since 1882, no horse that didn't race at age 2 could score in the Kentucky Derby. It had been tried, again and again, and challenged by some talented opponents. Yet as the trend had gone, so it continued year after year, after year. Thus, the Apollo Curse was real. That's when Justify arrived and ended something that had previously withstood the test of time.
That win in the Kentucky Derby was epic, but how far could he go? The arguments against him were legitimate, enough to make you think that Justify would meet his match in the Belmont Stakes. The distance would be the downfall, the post position was doomed, or fatigue would slow him down.
Yet, incredible talent has a way of showing itself in sports. and this year's Triple Crown was no exception.
Epic runs at the greatness that always seemed to end in failure, at least lately, have flourished. Sports are cyclical in nature. And we're lucky to be witnessing greatness that will be forever remembered.
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