Is this the worst group of horses in the Triple Crown ever? American Pharoah has run two of the slowest winning times ever in the history of the Derby and Preakness. You have to give him a little bit of a pass with the track conditions at the Preakness but his times stink. If he wins the Triple Crown, will he be the worst Triple Crown winner of all time? Personally, I hope he doesn't win. I would like to see a better horse be the one that breaks the Triple Crown drought.

 

The times really mean nothing. He is a strategic horse, and his trainer, who should know, thinks very highly of him. Is he Secretariat, no, neither has any other horse been. AP is a very good horse. He did exactly what he needed to do in both races. He basically loped 12's after the first quarter Saturday, and that was all he needed and coasted in. If he lopes 12's in the Belmont, he will tie Secretariat's record.

I am a total novice when it comes to horse racing...just a very casual fan...so I may come off as ignorant when I say this but I will anyway. Is it really that taxing for a thoroughbred to run a sprint for 2 minutes and then have to come back to do it 2 or 3 weeks later? I mean, c'mon, its not running a marathon, it is running hard for TWO MINUTES. QUOTE

 

 

It is hard to win the TC because premium horses are not raced with such little time between races. Add in 3 different tracks. Add in some horses skip one or more of the races. Add in large fields in the KY Derby. Add in so much buzz before the Belmont upsetting the horses routine.

 

As for how hard is it to run every two weeks.......the effort can take quite a bit out of the horse. They may lose weight in the week after a big race because they do not eat and drink as well after a hard race. They may be sore for awhile. They may not travel well.

 

Good post. What other animals can run 1 to 1 1/2 miles with a person on its back at 35 to 40mph? It is an amazing athletic feat in my mind. If one has been at the end of a marathon, it is not unusual to have runners coming in that can't tell you where they are, just to elaborate on the comparison.

Last 9 Belmont winners did not even run in the Preakness.

Yep....that's the challenge.

Yep, AP's connections have to hope that the Preakness didn't take much out of him. It didn't look like it did but you never know. Hope he's 100% and if he gets beat, he gets beat. There's a reason it hasn't been done in decades. If any trainer is going to do it I would root for Baffert as he's been close a couple times.

Everyone realizes that they were running the Preakness in a mud pit, right?

 

No rain on any other Preakness in the past 60 years? How many times has the Preakness been run on a sloppy track in that time?

 

Sorry. Not trying to belabor the point as everyone who probably knows more about horse racing than me has said don't get too caught up in times. But when a time is that slow, it has to mean something right? It may be more an indictment of the field than an indictment of AP.

No rain on any other Preakness in the past 60 years? How many times has the Preakness been run on a sloppy track in that time?

 

I don't know but I was mostly saying this because of people saying the winner had an historically low time. I wasn't expecting much after seeing the track conditions Saturday.

He won by 7 lengths, it would have been criminal for him to try to run faster with a 1.5 mile race coming up in 3 weeks. During the race you could see the jock ease up on AP and give him a breather on the backstretch but when the other horses came to him he put it in gear and pulled away again. When you're the KY derby winner you want to win the Preakness but use as little energy as possible in doing so. You don't get extra money for winning big.

Hopefully there is a challenge in the Belmont and we can see how good AP is. If he wins the Triple Crown, you have to give him credit regardless of the quality, or lack thereof, of the competition.

Last 9 Belmont winners did not even run in the Preakness.

 

Wow.

Bigger experts than anyone on this site were saying it was the best Derby field in at least 10 years. So I'm not buying the weak competition angle.

Bigger experts than anyone on this site were saying it was the best Derby field in at least 10 years. So I'm not buying the weak competition angle.

 

I wonder what those experts are saying now.

I wonder what those experts are saying now.

 

From what I hear, they generally believe AP is a great horse.

He sure appears to be.

Last 9 Belmont winners did not even run in the Preakness.

Why is that? Is it because it is too taxing to run both or is it because trainers that train horses to run 1 1/2 miles don't want to run the same horse 1 1/16 miles too??