The Triple Crown — History, Winners, and Why It's So Hard to Win
The Triple Crown — winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes in the same year — has been achieved only 13 times in history. This guide explains what makes the feat so difficult, the greatest Triple Crown horses, and the betting implications.
What Is the Triple Crown?
The American Triple Crown consists of three races run in spring over five weeks for three-year-old thoroughbreds: the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs (1¼ miles, first Saturday of May), the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore (1³⁄₁₆ miles, third Saturday after the Derby), and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York (1½ miles, three weeks after the Preakness). The Triple Crown was not formally recognised as such until the term gained widespread use in the 1930s — Sir Barton won all three races in 1919 but the sequence wasn't yet conceptualised as a unified championship. The Triple Crown is considered the most demanding achievement in American horse racing because it requires a horse to win three races at different distances, on different tracks, over five gruelling weeks with no opportunity for rest between legs.
All 13 Triple Crown Winners
The 13 horses to win the Triple Crown are: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015), and Justify (2018). The 37-year gap between Affirmed (1978) and American Pharoah (2015) is the longest in Triple Crown history — a testament to how genuinely exceptional the feat is. The gap prompted significant debate about whether the Triple Crown was still achievable in the modern era of more competitive racing and larger, more diverse fields. American Pharoah's 2015 win under Bob Baffert silenced that debate, and Justify's unbeaten run to the 2018 Triple Crown confirmed that the achievement remains possible for an exceptional horse with the right preparation.
Why Is the Triple Crown So Hard?
The physical and logistical demands of the Triple Crown are extraordinary. Three races in five weeks — each at a different track and different distance — require a horse to maintain peak physical condition through a period when even a single Grade 1 race at this level would test most horses' limits. The distance progression (1¼, 1³⁄₁₆, 1½ miles) is particularly challenging: a horse that has won the Derby over 10 furlongs must then stretch out to 12 furlongs at Belmont — a distance longer than any horse has run in the prep season. The changing track profiles (Churchill Downs' gradual turns, Pimlico's tighter configuration, Belmont's sweeping 1½-mile oval with its notoriously long stretch) demand versatility. Finally, the competitive field at each leg gets harder: horses that skipped the Derby specifically to be fresh for the Preakness and Belmont are the 'pirates' who most frequently derail Triple Crown attempts in the final two legs.
Secretariat: The Greatest Triple Crown Performance
Secretariat's 1973 Triple Crown is universally regarded as the greatest performance in American racing history. His times in each of the three races remain records to this day: 1:59.40 for the Kentucky Derby (still the track record), 1:53 flat for the Preakness (disputed but widely accepted), and 2:24 for the Belmont — a staggering time that is still the record for a race at any distance at Belmont Park. His Belmont win by 31 lengths — the largest margin of victory in any Classic race — was so extraordinary that the image of Secretariat running alone in the final straight has become one of the most iconic in all of sport. Secretariat's Beyer Speed Figure equivalent for the 1973 Belmont has been calculated at approximately 131 — a number no other horse has matched at any distance in the ADW era of American racing.
The Preakness and Belmont as Betting Events
Once a Derby winner emerges, the betting markets for the Preakness (two weeks later) and Belmont (five weeks after the Derby) become entirely shaped by the Triple Crown narrative. A dominant Derby winner attempting the Triple Crown becomes the heaviest favourite in the two remaining races — often at odds of 2/5 or shorter — creating a situation where betting the favourite is nearly break-even in the win market. The value for bettors lies in two places: the exacta and trifecta with the Triple Crown horse on top and longshots in second and third (the field horses opposing the favourite typically include horses specifically rested for the second and third leg); and backing a fresh 'Preakness pirate' to defeat an exhausted Derby winner at the Preakness. The Preakness has the highest rate of fresh-horse upsets of the three legs because the two-week turnaround from the Derby allows Preakness-only horses to arrive in significantly better physical shape.
The Canadian Triple Crown
Canada has its own Triple Crown — the Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes, and Breeders' Stakes — run over the summer at Woodbine and Fort Erie in Ontario. The Canadian Triple Crown is less commercially prominent than the American version but has genuine historical significance. The Queen's Plate — the oldest continuously run stakes race in North America, first run in 1860 — is a prestigious event in its own right. The Canadian Triple Crown is open to Canadian-foaled horses only, which limits the field but ensures the championship retains national significance. Several horses have completed the Canadian Triple Crown in recent decades, including Catch the Fire (2005) and Wando (2003), demonstrating that the Canadian classic series continues to produce worthy champions of the Northern racing tradition.