On page 28, we told you all about the Kentucky Derby. Here are some odd facts, fun tidbits, and accumulated knowledge about three other big horse-racing prizes.
•No Triple Crown winner is currently still alive.
•The Triple Crown is so difficult to win because all contenders for the prize must win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. All three races are run within a five-week period, making it one of the most strenuous events in sports.
•The first trophy to commemorate the Triple Crown was crafted in 1950. It was a three-sided vase (each side represented one of the races). This original trophy is on display at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Triple Crown winners today get their own personalized trophy, which is engraved with the dates of the races won. And the trophy is theirs to keep.
•Since 1875, the first year it was possible to win the Triple Crown, only 11 horses have earned the distinction. The first, Sir Barton, won in 1919. Other winners include Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), and Affirmed (1978).
•Biggest upset: Master Derby beat Foolish Pleasure in 1975 . . . at 23–1 odds.
•Since 1940, the winner of the Preakness has received an 18-inch wide, 90-inch long blanket made of black-eyed Susans.
•Only four fillies have won the Preakness: Flocarline (1903), Whimsical (1906), Rhine Maiden (1915), and Nellie Morse (1924).
•At one time, the Preakness had the most valuable trophy in American sports. The Woodlawn Vase—weighing nearly 30 pounds and crafted in 1860 by Tiffany—has been appraised at more than $1 million and originally belonged to Kentucky’s now-defunct Woodlawn Racing Association. In 1861, racing aficionados buried it to keep it from being stolen or damaged during the Civil War. After the war, they dug it up, and the trophy changed hands several times until 1917, when it ended up with Thoroughbred owner Thomas C. Clyde, who decided the Maryland Jockey Club, originators of the Preakness, should hand it out as a trophy: race winners could keep the vase for one year and then return it to the club, which would award it to the next winner. But in 1953, the Vanderbilts refused the trophy after winning the Preakness because they didn’t want the responsibility of guarding it for the year. After that, racing officials commissioned a Lenox sterling silver replica that winners get to keep. (The original is now on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art.)
•Another Preakness award is the David F. Woods Memorial Award. This one isn’t given to a horse, though. It’s for the writer of the best Preakness story published in a newspaper, magazine, or journal.
•Since all Thoroughbred racers can be traced back to three horses—the Darley Arabian, Godolphin Arabian, and Byerley Turk—it makes sense that this racing trophy includes three horses holding up a silver Tiffany bowl. On top of the bowl is a depiction of Fenian, the 1869 Belmont winner and the horse of August Belmont, for whom the race is named. The family kept the bowl until 1926, when they donated it to the race.
•The Belmont has a flower tradition, too. The white carnation is the Belmont’s official flower, and 350 of them go into the blanket awarded to the winning horse. (The blanket weighs between 30 and 40 pounds.)
•The most money awarded to a Belmont winner: $1,764,800 to A.P. Indy in 1992.