However You Spell It, He’s a Winner
Monday, June 8th, 2015June 8, 2014
Last Saturday, June 5, a three-year old thoroughbred horse with a misspelled name made racing history. American Pharoah (which should be spelled Pharaoh) won horse racing’s Triple Crown. It has been 37 years since a horse has been able to win the prize and experts in racing were beginning to worry it might never happen again. To win the Triple Crown, a horse must win three races in the same year: the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky; the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Belmont Stakes, in Elmont New York.
It is difficult for a horse to win all three races. The Kentucky Derby is held on the first Saturday in May. The Preakness is held on the third Saturday in May. The Belmont is held on a Saturday three weeks after the Preakness. Often, a horse that wins the first two races will lose the third to a horse that sat out the earlier races and was better rested.
The horses that have won the Triple Crown are–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); Affirmed (1978); and, now, American Pharoah (2015).
In 1950, a trophy of silver was commissioned for the winners of the Triple Crown from the French jewelers Cartier. The three-sided trophy represents the three legs of the Triple Crown. The owner of each winner is awarded a trophy and a new one is created for the next winner. (The winners of the Triple Crown before 1950 were awarded their trophies retroactively.) When a horse wins both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the Triple Crown trophy is taken to the Belmont. American Pharoah’s trophy had made more than a dozen trips from Louisville, where the trophy is housed, to Elmont between 1978 and 2014–only to return to Kentucky and wait for another year. A trophy in search of a winner found one in 2015.
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