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The continued growth of the Kentucky Derby has made it not just a race, but a major sporting event that draws viewership every professional league outside of the NFL would covet for its championship game.
Horse racing isn’t fully taking advantage of its popularity.
The schedule for the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes has to be changed so all parties can work together for the betterment of the future. It’s time that the Triple Crown evolved to match what’s prudent for today’s industry while discarding what made sense in the past.
The Preakness Stakes, traditionally run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, should naturally be able to capitalize off the momentum of the First Saturday in May as the second leg of the Triple Crown. But in too many years recently, it has fallen flat.
Preakness 2026 viewership numbers were not out at the time of this writing, but the 2025 race without Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty averaged 4.6 million viewers after the Derby drew 17.7 million. Compare that to 2024, when Derby winner Mystik Dan came in second place at the Preakness and the average audience was 5.5 million (16.7 million for the Derby).
At the least, horse racing needs the Derby winner to compete in the second leg of the Crown. It would have especially been a ratings boon this year after Golden Tempo trainer Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby.
As she made her rounds as a guest on NBC’s Today Show and threw out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game, it was clear that the buzz generated by her achievement had staying power. But the Preakness failed to benefit from it.
It’s becoming the norm.
From 1960-2018, only three Kentucky Derby winners missed the Preakness. Golden Tempo is the fourth Derby winner since 2019 to skip it, after none between 1997 and 2018 had done so. (As a footnote, that doesn’t include 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic moved the Derby back to September. And in 2021, Medina Spirit did compete, but his failed drug test stripped away his Derby win, making Mandaloun the winner; Mandaloun did not run in the Preakness.)
DeVaux determined her colt needed more recovery time and added she typically never runs a horse off two weeks' rest. Similarly, before it was officially announced in 2025 that Sovereignty would miss the Preakness, trainer Bill Mott said he wanted the horse's career "to last more than five weeks." In both years, only three Derby finishers even made the trip.
The spacing of the Triple Crown has always been a part of the challenge of winning it. Three major races, virtually one on top of the other, five weeks apart, is a test of stamina as much as it is a test of speed.
Change that, the purists say, and it can no longer truly be called the Triple Crown.
If the schedule featured, say, one Triple Crown race a month apart from May to July, it would still be as tough — if not harder — to win now as it was in the old days.
They don’t breed ‘em like they used to may have something to do with it.
They can’t dope ‘em like they used to has more to do with it.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) was created to centralize oversight, and the impact is felt every weekend. HISA’s racetrack safety program began in July 2022 and its anti-doping/medication control (ADMC) program became official in May 2023.
When a horse takes the gate to run a Triple Crown race, you can be assured that it is healthy and there’s not a drug cocktail masking an injury or enhancing its performance.
A record-tying six horses were scratched from the 2026 Kentucky Derby. Many of them probably would have been given a pass to compete a decade ago (with the exception of Great White, who bucked his jockey at the starting gate).
The adage of “playing hurt” is basically being erased from horse racing as more stringent safety guidelines are established to protect horses from being forced to run through an ailment.
Many trainers have acquiesced to the new standards and willingly bowed out of races without needing a veterinarian to shut them down.
That’s why keeping the traditional scheduling of the Triple Crown shouldn’t matter. It’s still going to be one of the most difficult feats in all of sports to achieve.
The substance of the Triple Crown can stay in place, regardless of the schedule.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Triple Crown schedule needs change to capitalize on Kentucky Derby
Continue reading...
Horse racing isn’t fully taking advantage of its popularity.
The schedule for the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes has to be changed so all parties can work together for the betterment of the future. It’s time that the Triple Crown evolved to match what’s prudent for today’s industry while discarding what made sense in the past.
The Preakness Stakes, traditionally run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, should naturally be able to capitalize off the momentum of the First Saturday in May as the second leg of the Triple Crown. But in too many years recently, it has fallen flat.
Preakness 2026 viewership numbers were not out at the time of this writing, but the 2025 race without Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty averaged 4.6 million viewers after the Derby drew 17.7 million. Compare that to 2024, when Derby winner Mystik Dan came in second place at the Preakness and the average audience was 5.5 million (16.7 million for the Derby).
At the least, horse racing needs the Derby winner to compete in the second leg of the Crown. It would have especially been a ratings boon this year after Golden Tempo trainer Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby.
As she made her rounds as a guest on NBC’s Today Show and threw out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game, it was clear that the buzz generated by her achievement had staying power. But the Preakness failed to benefit from it.
It’s becoming the norm.
From 1960-2018, only three Kentucky Derby winners missed the Preakness. Golden Tempo is the fourth Derby winner since 2019 to skip it, after none between 1997 and 2018 had done so. (As a footnote, that doesn’t include 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic moved the Derby back to September. And in 2021, Medina Spirit did compete, but his failed drug test stripped away his Derby win, making Mandaloun the winner; Mandaloun did not run in the Preakness.)
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DeVaux determined her colt needed more recovery time and added she typically never runs a horse off two weeks' rest. Similarly, before it was officially announced in 2025 that Sovereignty would miss the Preakness, trainer Bill Mott said he wanted the horse's career "to last more than five weeks." In both years, only three Derby finishers even made the trip.
The spacing of the Triple Crown has always been a part of the challenge of winning it. Three major races, virtually one on top of the other, five weeks apart, is a test of stamina as much as it is a test of speed.
Change that, the purists say, and it can no longer truly be called the Triple Crown.
If the schedule featured, say, one Triple Crown race a month apart from May to July, it would still be as tough — if not harder — to win now as it was in the old days.
They don’t breed ‘em like they used to may have something to do with it.
They can’t dope ‘em like they used to has more to do with it.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) was created to centralize oversight, and the impact is felt every weekend. HISA’s racetrack safety program began in July 2022 and its anti-doping/medication control (ADMC) program became official in May 2023.
When a horse takes the gate to run a Triple Crown race, you can be assured that it is healthy and there’s not a drug cocktail masking an injury or enhancing its performance.
A record-tying six horses were scratched from the 2026 Kentucky Derby. Many of them probably would have been given a pass to compete a decade ago (with the exception of Great White, who bucked his jockey at the starting gate).
The adage of “playing hurt” is basically being erased from horse racing as more stringent safety guidelines are established to protect horses from being forced to run through an ailment.
Many trainers have acquiesced to the new standards and willingly bowed out of races without needing a veterinarian to shut them down.
That’s why keeping the traditional scheduling of the Triple Crown shouldn’t matter. It’s still going to be one of the most difficult feats in all of sports to achieve.
The substance of the Triple Crown can stay in place, regardless of the schedule.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Triple Crown schedule needs change to capitalize on Kentucky Derby
Continue reading...
