A record-shattering army of 42 talented and promising young
stars from the stable of six-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher
and two-year-old stars of 2013 — headed by unbeaten champion Shared Belief, and
Grade 2 winners Honor Code and Cairo Prince — top a roster of
413
three-year-old
Thoroughbreds who are early nominees to
compete in the 2014 Triple Crown comprised of the $2 million Kentucky Derby, $1.5 million Preakness and $1.5
million Belmont Stakes.
Please click here for
BRISnet.com’s Ultimate Past Performances of the Triple Crown nominations.
The
413 total,
an 11.9 percent increase from last year’s early nominees, is the highest since 2008, when 401 horses
were made eligible for the three-race series during the early nomination phase.
Eleven horses were nominated during the late phase that year to bring the
overall total to 412. This year’s early nomination total surpassed most recent
overall nomination high mark of 418 in 2012. There were 398 early nominees that
year and 20 were added during the late nomination period.
The 2013 Triple Crown series attracted 369 early
nominations. Thirteen horses were added during the late nomination phase, which
brought total Triple Crown nominations for 2013 to 382.
Nominations to the 2014 Triple Crown opened January 2 and
closed on January 25, requiring payment of a $600 fee for each nominated horse.
The 2014 late nomination period, which requires a payment $6,000 for each
nominated three-year-old, opened January 26 and continues through March 22.
The 2014 Triple Crown series opens on May 3 with
the 140th running of the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in
Louisville, Kentucky. The 139th Preakness, the 1 3/16-mile second jewel, is set for
May 17 at Pimlico in Baltimore, Maryland. The 146th running of
the Belmont Stakes, its 1 1/2-mile final leg, is scheduled for June 7 at
Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
The number of horses made eligible for the Triple Crown by
Pletcher, who has three Triple Crown victories to his credit, comprises 10.2
percent of
the overall early nomination total. It is easily the highest total for an
individual trainer since host tracks Churchill Downs, Pimlico and
Belmont adopted a joint nominating process in 1986. Pletcher set the
previous record for nominations by a trainer when he made 32 horses Triple
Crown-eligible in 2012.
Most prominent among the Pletcher nominees are Havana, a gray son of Dunkirk
who won the Champagne at Belmont last October and experienced his only setback in
three races when runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita; We
Miss Artie, winner of the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland; and a collection
of promising recent winners that includes Commissioner, Constitution, Anchor
Down, Harpoon, Hartford and Matterhorn.
Pletcher also nominated a pair of stakes-winning fillies to
the Triple Crown in Stopchargingmaria, winner of Aqueduct’s Demoiselle and
Tempted last November, and unbeaten Onlyforyou, who took Gulfstream
Park’s Forward Gal on January 25.
Outside of the swarm of Pletcher trainees, the early nominations to the
Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes are highlighted by the presence of unbeaten Shared Belief, the
Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Eclipse Award champion two-year-old of 2013 and winner of the
CashCall Futurity; Cairo Prince, a dazzling winner of the Holy Bull at
Gulfstream Park in his first start of 2014 for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin; Honor
Code, winner of the Remsen at Aqueduct; and Top Billing, a son of
2007 Preakness winner and two-time Horse of the Year Curlin who was an impressive
winner of a January 25 allowance race at Gulfstream.
Honor Code and Top
Billing are trained by Hall of Famer Shug McCaughey, who earned his first
Kentucky Derby victory in 2013 with Orb and won the 1989 Belmont Stakes with Easy Goer.
Other current stars of the three-year-old crop nominated to
this spring’s Triple Crown include Strong
Mandate, winner of the Hopeful at Saratoga for 78-year-old Hall of Fame trainer
D. Wayne Lukas, whose victory in the 2013 Preakness with Oxbow was his record 14th triumph in a Triple Crown contest; Bond Holder,
hero of the FrontRunner at Santa Anita for Reddam Racing LLC and Doug O’Neill,
the owner and trainer team who captured the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with
I’ll Have Another; Tamarando, the
Hollendorfer-trained scorer of the Del Mar Futurity;
Tapiture, victor of the Kentucky Jockey Club for trainer Steve Asmussen; Holy Bull runner-up Conquest Titan;
Noble Moon, triumphant in last month’s Jerome at Aqueduct; and undefeated In
Trouble, conqueror of Belmont’s Futurity.
Also nominated are a trio of stakes
winners representing Ken and Sarah Ramsey, who recently earned Eclipse Awards that
honor the Nicholasville, Kentucky, couple as America’s top owners and breeders of
2013. Those stars — who are among eight Ramsey-owned nominees — are the Chad
Brown-trained Bobby’s Kitten, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Turf at Santa Anita and winner of the Pilgrim over the Belmont Park
grass; Vicar’s in Trouble, who romped by 6 3/4 lengths in the Lecomte at Fair Grounds for
trainer Mike Maker; and We Miss Artie, the Pletcher-trained scorer of the Breeders’ Futurity over the synthetic Polytrack surface at
Keeneland.
Along with the pair of stakes-winning fillies nominated by Pletcher, the
roster of Triple Crown nominees includes 12 other females. Most prominent among
that group are Ria Antonia,
winner by disqualification of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa
Anita for trainer Jeremiah Englehart; the Bob Baffert-trained Streaming,
unbeaten winner of the Hollywood Starlet; and Unbridled Forever, victress of the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds
for trainer Dallas Stewart, who saddled Golden Soul to a runner-up
finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby.
The most recent females to win the
respective Triple Crown races were Winning Colors (1988 Kentucky Derby), Rachel
Alexandra (2009 Preakness) and Rags to Riches (2007 Belmont Stakes).
As usual, the American Triple Crown series attracted
nominations for horses based beyond U.S. borders, headed by four from the barn
of Irish-training champion Aidan O’Brien. His group, all owned by Mrs. John Magnier,
Michael Tabor
and Derrick Smith, includes West Virginia-bred Giovanni Boldini, who already has experience on American
shores after finishing a half-length second in the Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile Turf; Oklahoma City, a British-bred son of Oasis Dream who finished
second in Newmarket’s Autumn Stakes behind Kingston Hill, who won the
Racing Post Trophy in his next start; and Michaelmas, a son of Elusive
Quality and a $525,000 weanling purchase at the 2011 Keeneland November Sale who
was runner-up in last fall’s Killavullan at Ireland’s Leopardstown.
Of the 399 male nominees to the 2014 classics, 359 are
colts, 30 are geldings and 10 are listed as ridglings.
While Pletcher was the runaway leader in Triple Crown
nominations by a single trainer, he was followed in that category by Baffert
(18 nominations), Asmussen (13) and Lukas (12). Pletcher’s Palace Malice
won last year’s Belmont Stakes to raise his Triple Crown win total to three
following wins by Super Saver in the 2010 Kentucky Derby and the filly Rags to
Riches in the 2007 Belmont.
Leading owners, either alone or in partnership, were Magnier and Tabor, who shared ownership of 13 nominees. Their
regular partner Smith owns 12 of the nominated horses, and was followed
by Stonestreet Stables LLC with nine nominees.
WinStar Farm LLC, owner of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super
Saver and that same year’s Belmont Stakes hero Drosselmeyer, led all breeders with nine
nominees, either alone or in partnerships. The Estate of Edward Evans was next
with eight, followed by Darley’s seven nominees and six each for Brereton C.
Jones and Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC.
Of the 413 nominated three-year-olds, 388 were bred in the
United States and Kentucky was the state of breeding for 302 of those horses.
Florida produced 29 nominees, and was followed by Virginia (13), New York (12)
and Pennsylvania (10). Canada produced 12 of the 15 horses bred in international
locals. Nine were bred in Ireland.
Bernardini, winner of the 2006 Preakness, and Tapit each
sired 16 nominees to rank as leading sires among early Triple Crown nominees.
Distorted Humor, Giant’s Causeway and Unbridled’s Song tied at 10.
The purses for the 2014 renewals of the Preakness and
Belmont Stakes will be the richest in history. The Maryland Jockey Club and the
New York Racing Association increased the purses for their respective Triple
Crown races by $500,000. The boost to the Preakness purse is the first since an
increase to $1 million in 1998, and the Belmont Stakes purse rose to
the $1 million level that same year. The Kentucky Derby purse climbed to $1
million in 1996, and Churchill raised it to its current level
in 2005.
The Kentucky Derby field has been limited to 20 starters
since 1975 and the horses that enter the starting gate for this year’s running
will be determined by points earned in the “Road to the Kentucky Derby”
eligibility system, which debuted in 2013. If more than the maximum field of 20
horses is entered in the race, up to four “also-eligible” entrants will be
permitted. If one or more starters are scratched prior to 9 a.m. (ET) on
May 2, also-eligible horse with the highest preference in the “Road to
the Kentucky Derby” system will be allowed to replace the scratched horse or
horses in the starting gate.
The Preakness field is limited to 14 starters and the
Belmont Stakes allows a maximum of 16 horses.
Three-year-olds that are not nominated for the Triple Crown
during its early or late nomination phases have a final opportunity to become
eligible to compete in one or all of the races through the payment of a
supplemental nomination fee. Due at the time of entry for either the Kentucky
Derby, the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes, the supplemental fee process makes a
horse eligible for the remainder of the Triple Crown series. A supplemental
nomination at the time of entry to the Kentucky Derby requires payment of
$200,000. The fee is $150,000 if paid prior to the Preakness or $75,000 at time
of entry to the Belmont Stakes.
Churchill Downs adjusted its supplemental nomination
process this year to allow those nominations made prior to the Kentucky Derby to
be treated the same as original nominees. If a supplemental nominee has
collected sufficient points to qualify for the Derby field, that horse would be
allowed to start over original nominees that possess lesser qualifications.
Under its previous policy, Churchill Downs gave preference to original nominees
to the Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown over supplemental nominees.
A sweep of the three Triple Crown races — one of the most
difficult feats in all of sports — has been accomplished on only 11 occasions.
The roster of Triple Crown winners includes 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) and
Affirmed (1978).
The 36-year gap since the most recent Triple Crown sweep by
Affirmed is the longest in the history of the series. The previous
record was the 25-year span between the 1948 Triple Crown earned by Citation and
Secretariat’s record-shattering three-race sweep in 1973.
The Triple Crown races produced three separate winners in 2013. Orb won the
Kentucky Derby, Oxbow earned the victory in the Preakness and Palace
Malice took the Belmont Stakes.
A total of 51 three-year-olds have won two of the Triple
Crown’s three races. I’ll Have Another became the most recent to
do so when he won the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but did not compete in
the Belmont Stakes.
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