Horse racing and the Triple Crown?

Question

Ok. I need to know names of the prelimary races in order to qualify for the Triple Crown, how long training generally takes for horse and rider, how much these horses run for, registration processes and anything else you guys think is useful. TY!

Answer 1

I assume you are refering to the American Triple Crown?  Please remember that there are many "triple crowns" around the world, and many of them were being run long before the American version!

To my knowledge horses do not need to "qualify" for the US Triple Crown races.  The only pre-requiste is that they are three years old.

Most of the horses that run in these races will have been in training since they were about 18 months old - starting off with learning to be backed and then working under a rider before building up to regular stamina building gallops.

Yes the horses will need to be registered to run in the Triple Crown races, but I cannot tell you how far in advance this happens.  At a guess I'd say about 3 months or so before the first race - the Kentucky Derby.

Prize money for these races can very year on year. You may find the following links to be of use to you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crow...

http://www.thetriplecrownchallenge.com/

Answer 2

ask my boy ken at tvg.com

Answer 3

To add to what Newmarketsalsa wrote:

Entrance to the Kentucky Derby is determined by the amount of money horse's win in Graded Stakes.  These races are not 'qualifiers' per se, but the traditional prep races for the Triple Crown are listed http://tcm.bloodhorse.com/derby_preps.as... .

Horses are nominated to the Triple Crown in two phases - early nominations (which usually close in mid-January at a cost of $600/horse) and late nominations (which close in Mid-March at a cost of $6,000/horse).  Nominations don't include entry and starter fees to the individual races.  

The purse for the Kentucky Derby is $2 million, the Preakness and Belmont are $1 million each.  You can look at the link above for the amount of money the preps are worth, the highest of them are also $1 million purses.

Answer 4

There is no specific set of qualifying races for the US Triple Crown. However, there are only 20 spaces for horses in the Kentucky Derby, the first race. Everyone wants to run their horse in the Derby so horses are nominated. A horse would have to be doing fairly well in his two year old and early three year old year. The The Preakness and Belmont do not attract as big of a field since they are not quite as famous as the Derby is. But all three are grade 1 stakes races and horses with little to no track success won't be running in them.

Answer 5

While there may be no exact race or races that are required to enter a triple crown race, there are only 20 horses that can enter the Kentucky Derby, and these 20 are culled from the list of eligible horses based on the amount of their graded earnings.  While a handful of that top 20 might decide not to enter that race based on fitness or another reason, you can be sure that the entrants will be among the top 22 or 23 3 year old money earners.  So whatever the technical answer is, the actual fact is there are several graded stakes that serve as benchmarks on the Derby Trail.  You can be all but certain, for example, that the winners and/or in the money finishers from the Santa Anita Derby, Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland, Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn, Illinois Derby at Hawthorne, Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park will all be represented at the Kentucky Derby and, depending on how the horses do there, at Pimlico and Belmont.

Answer 6

Technically, there are no "qualifying races" for the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes.  The only "qualifier" is that any horse entered must be a registered three-year-old Thoroughbred, must not be on the Starters, Stewards, or Vets list on any track (i.e., must be gate-qualified), and the owner has to have paid the proper entry fees.

"Qualifiers" come into play only if the field for any of the races is oversubscribed.  The Derby field is limited to 20 starters;  if more than 20 horses are entered, the top twenty ranked by earnings in Graded stakes are allowed to start in the Derby.  Everyone else gets their entry money refunded.

Graded stakes are races that a committee of people, appointed for the task, have rated as having the necessary quality to be considered top races.  Grade 1 races are the "creme de la creme;" after that, there are Grade 2 and Grade 3 races.  Any money earned in Graded stakes counts towards Derby or Preakness qualification (in practice, you're never going to see the Belmont Stakes oversubscribed;  there are so few horses that can get 1-1/2 miles in top company, it's rare to even get a full field of 12 entered).

Buchanan, Sir Barton, and Broker's Tip all won the Derby as their maiden victory.  While it's doubtful now that a maiden would be able to get into the Derby field, it isn't impossible and there are no rules to prevent it.

The Derby today has a purse of $2,000,000 added.  It costs $25,000 to enter the Derby, with an additional $25,000 to start.  The 2007 winner of the Derby, Street Sense, earned $1,450,000 for winning.

The Preakness had a $1,000,000 purse, and Curlin won $650,000 for his victory.  The Belmont Stakes had a $1,000,000 purse and Rags to Riches won $600,000 for her victory.  

This link gives you the names and information of some of the more important prep races for the Triple Crown:  http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=ot...  However, it's important to note that it's possible for a horse to come into the Triple Crown with no prep races as a three-year-old at all.  If a horse won enough graded stakes money as a two-year old to be in the top twenty for the Derby field, or if fewer than 20 horses were entered in the Derby, then a horse could just train up to the Derby-- although it would take a wizard of a trainer, and one heck of a horse, to win under those circumstances.