The Sim’s New Yorker looks to have attracted a deeply stellar field as General Crook attempts to become just the second Triple Crown winner in the game’s history. With this coming Saturday being the (newfangled) traditional Belmont Stakes day and the controversy its shortening, its delay, and the scrambled order have created, I thought I’d take a look at the history of the Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this year’s Belmont Stakes famously postponed a month, kicking off the Triple Crown series of races, and having its distance reduced to nine furlongs, there is a lot of talk that the lack of tradition of this year’s model would necessitate an asterisk for any horse that sweeps the series. There’s been a lot of flux in the Triple Crown series historically, traditionally, so I’m more inclined to embrace the strangeness this year, with the thought that most past Triple Crown winners might deserve an asterisk as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Belmont Stakes has been run at four different tracks, five different distances, and while running around the track with both left- and right-handed turns. In 1867, the filly Ruthless (by Eclipse) won the first edition, completing the 13 furlongs in 3:05 at Jerome Park in the Fordham section of Westchester County that would become part of the Bronx in 1874. The first seven renewals were at that distance and the first 23 at Jerome Park. The race was reduced in distance to 12 furlongs in 1874 when Saxon won setting a new track record of 2:39.50. Jerome Park closed in 1894 to make way for a reservoir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Belmont Stakes, however, has already moved to Morris Park, which was built to replace Jerome Park. (Morris Park was built in Westchester County on a site that was annexed into the Bronx in 1895. The first Belmont Stakes run at Morris Park was in 1890 at the now reduced distance of 10 furlongs. Also on the card that day was that year’s renewal of the Preakness (which had run at Pimlico for its first 17 renewals — 16 at 12 furlongs, the 1889 edition at 10 furlongs) which was run at 12 furlongs. The Preakness would be cancelled for the next three years then run for 15 years at Gravesend on Coney Island. In 1893, the Belmont was run at nine furlongs, went back to 10 for one renewal in 1895, then settled on 11 furlongs for eight renewals, only to try 10 furlongs again for two years before returning to 11 furlongs for the next 18 renewals (over 20 years as there was no race in either 1911 or 1912). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During those various distance permutations the race moved to Belmont Park in 1905, where for the second time in the race’s history a filly won. Now for the first 15 years or so of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, racing was conducted clockwise around the big 1 1\/2-mile oval (1 1\/2 miles, six feet, three inches according to the 1948 American Racing Manual). Once the race switched to 12 furlongs in 1926 it was amazingly consistent given the ever-changing history of the race prior to that time. The only change following that year — save one change, described later — was moving the race to Aqueduct from 1963 to 1967 while Belmont Park was rebuilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assigning Asterisks <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Those are just the changes for the Belmont (and a little for the Preakness). The Triple Crown series has been won in various permutations as well, and many of these horses surely deserve asterisks. On the, God-forbid, second Saturday in May* Sir Barton won the Derby (already run at 10 furlongs, a reduction from its original (traditional?) distance of 12 furlongs*) carrying only 112 pounds*, then four days later* won the Preakness, which was run at only nine furlongs* (up from the various ranges between eight and eight-and-a-half furlongs at which it was run between 1894 and 1910 (returning to Pimlico in 1909). Sir Barton then won the Withers 10 days later before taking the Belmont, running around the track clockwise* and only 11 furlongs* mind you, on June 11th. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s a lot in there that could earn an asterisk for Sir Barton, but there is also the fact that the Triple Crown was not an entity in 1919*. How can one win what does not exist? According to Wikipedia, some journalists began using the term Triple Crown in 1923 but reports it was not in common parlance until after Gallant Fox’s sweep in 1930. The Triple Crown trophy was not commissioned until 1950 so I’m not really sure how much of a thing it was before then too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why does that point matter? If it’s a thing of value, that is pointed for and coveted, there is far more competition then if it’s not. Take this year’s New Yorker in the Sim, for instance. Before General Crook took the Middle Jewel to set up his potential Triple Crown sweep, Cadet’s Hopkinson Flyer was being pointed to the Eddie Haskell Stakes. With a Triple Crown on the line, Cadet did the right and proper sporting thing and entered his Bluegrass Derby third-place finisher to the New Yorker. Excellent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So that’s another asterisk for Sir Barton and one for Gallant Fox and potentially Omaha, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, and Citation too. (The 1948 American Racing Manual lists American and English Triple Crown winners, so it can be regarded as something of a thing by then. However, in some of the years when all three races were run (remembering that the Preakness and Belmont both skipped years) there could not possibly be a Triple Crown winner. As previously mentioned, the Belmont and Preakness were run on the same day at the same track on one occasion (ok, a horse could win both of those–I remember reading about a horse racing three times in two days once and there used to be a lot of heats run early and then a final race later in the day), and twice (1917 and 1922) the Kentucky Derby and Preakness were run on the same day in wholly different places. And in 1918 there were two divisions of the Preakness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gallant Fox gets another asterisk as the Preakness was run first the year he won it and for people of 2020, that’s just not the way it’s supposed to go. Further, what’s with this non-traditional, asterisk-creating one-week gap between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in Omaha and War Admiral’s sweeps? Wartime travel restrictions for 1943? Give Count Fleet an asterisk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A further asterisk exists for all of the supposed Triple Crown winners between 1919 and 1957. In those year’s, the Belmont Stakes was a restricted race: no geldings, please. So more asterisks as far as I’m concerned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So fast forward to this decade and both these most recent Triple Crown winners earn asterisks as well. Why? That horrible, tradition-killing change to the Kentucky Derby–the point system for entries. The magic of the race is now gone. Rather than calling the Travers the mid-summer Derby, one could just as well call the previously exciting Kentucky Derby, the mid-spring Travers, as it has become so boringly formful. Without the precocious juveniles of the previous year qualifying and really gassing it up on the front end setting up all kinds of crazy, longshot winners, now we get quality favorites galloping to victory on the front end with the Preakness almost a walkover two weeks hence. It’s no shock to me the Triple Crown drought ended so quickly after the rule change that so horribly changed the complexion of the Kentucky Derby. Asterisks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That leaves just the unsullied Triple Crown winners of the 1970s: Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed. If you don’t think a potential winner of this year’s Triple Crown really deserves the title, how can you bestow it upon any but these three regal names? <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Sim’s New Yorker looks to have attracted a deeply stellar field as General Crook attempts to become just the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52125,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52124\/revisions\/52125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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