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| California Chrome wins Kentucky Derby |
The Triple Crown has three
races of over a mile against the best horses in the world during a five week
period and is the true test of champions. In the 140 years since the Kentucky
Derby began only 11 horses have won the coveted Triple Crown. It has been 36
years since the last Triple Crown champion, Affirmed in 1978, the longest
drought ever between Triple Crown champions.
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| Secretariat wins Belmont by mile |
Since Affirmed won in 1978
eleven horses have won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes but none
won the Belmont Stakes to claim the Triple Crown. The closest was Real Quiet in
1998 who lost by a nose in the Belmont
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| Secretariat at play in Kentucky |
Now no horse will ever be
the champion like Secretariat in 1973 who blazed to glory winning the three
races by a record total of 36 lengths. It had been 25 years since the previous
Triple Crown winner and to this day Secretariat holds the records in the Derby and Belmont
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| Affirmed beats Alydar by nose in Belmont |
As for the last winner, Affirmed, his legendary races against Alydar rank as
the best competition of all time. Alydar was the only horse to ever finish 2nd
in all three races and in the Belmont when Affirmed was going for the Triple
Crown they were nose to nose at the finish line with Affirmed winning in a
photo finish by a nose. In all three races the two horses finished just two
lengths apart.
According to Fox News this
will be a banner year for the Belmont track and
the State of New York
Here is some of what Fox
had to say about the Triple Crown excitement.
California Chrome is the 12th horse to reach Long
Island with wins in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby
and the Preakness Stakes, since Affirmed won all three in 1978.
Attendance for those 11 races averaged nearly
30,000 more than in years without a contender -- going from a low of 37,171 in
1995 when Thunder Gulch and Timber Country split the Derby and the Preakness,
to a record 120,139 in 2004 when Birdstone upset Smarty Jones in the last of a
three-year stretch of Triple Crown contenders in the Belmont Stakes.
On-site wagering on the race-day program also
surged in those years, according to track records, jumping from $6.8 million in
contender-less 1996 to $9.2 million the following year when Silver Charm took
the first two races, and from $8.8 million in contender-less 2007 to $13.3
million when Big Brown raced for history in 2008.
I'll Have Another's wins in Louisville and
Baltimore sent attendance for the 2012 Belmont Stakes to nearly 86,000 and
on-site wagering to $13.8 million even though the horse was withdrawn the day
before the race due to a leg injury.
The head of the track's management team said ticket
sales for this year's Belmont Stakes, with its
emphasis on high-level racing and daylong entertainment, were already brisk
before California Chrome broke from the gate
at Churchill Downs in May.
More than 70 percent of tickets and premium tables
for the race were sold before the Derby and all
were gone before the Preakness, according to New York
After the Preakness, Kay said, they added a
trackside tent and additional seating to accommodate the surge of interest in a
potential California
General admission and grandstand tickets costing
$10 remained available through the track late in the week and more than 3,000
tickets, ranging from $12 for grandstand to $2,300 for a table for two at the
Garden Terrace Restaurant, were available on the secondary ticket sales website
StubHub.com.
Good weather -- 82 degrees and sunny, according to
the National Weather Service -- could push the crowd into record territory.
"Our intent is to make Belmont
This year it has been an important day -- and week
-- for business.
The largest hotel on Long Island, a Marriott with
more than 600 rooms in Uniondale, and the ornate Garden City Hotel --
where management said all of the owners, trainers and jockeys in the
Belmont Stakes were staying and where the menu includes a cocktail named for
each horse -- have sold out under race-related demand.
Other hotels were also booked solid, officials
said, forcing some out-of-town fans to find lodging in Suffolk County, about 20
miles east, or stay in Manhattan, about 15 miles west.
"This Triple Crown opportunity doesn't come
too often," state hotel association chairman John Tsunis said. "But,
whoever wins in the race, the real winners will be Long Island and New York State
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