A payment of $600 must accompany each nomination made during the early phase of early Triple Crown nominations, which will close on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. A late nomination period that requires payment of a $6,000 nomination fee opens at 12 a.m. (all times Eastern) Sunday, Jan. 22 and will run through Saturday, March 24.
The 138th running of the $2 million-guaranteed Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands at 1 ¼ miles at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. on Saturday, May 5;
The 137th running of the $1 million Preakness, which will be run at 1 3/16 miles on Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md. on Saturday, May 19;
The 144th running of the $1 million Belmont Stakes at 1 ½ miles at New York’s Belmont Park on Saturday, June 9.
All nominations made by traditional mail during the early nomination phase must be postmarked with the Jan. 21 date. Triple Crown nominations can also be made online at http://www.TheTripleCrown.com, or via telephone with a designated representative from one of the three Triple Crown host tracks. Online and telephone nominations must be made prior to the 11:59 p.m. deadline on Saturday.
Triple Crown nomination contacts at the host tracks are:
Churchill Downs: Senior Vice President of Racing Don Richardson () and Racing Secretary Ben Huffman (). The telephone number for nominations at Churchill Downs Racing is (502) 638-3825 and its fax number is (502) 638-3915;
Pimlico: Racing Secretary/Director of Racing Georgeanne Hale () and Stakes Coordinator Coley Blind ();
Belmont Park: Vice President and Director of Racing P.J. Campo ().
Starting Wednesday, representatives of the Triple Crown host tracks will be on-site at racetracks in Florida, California, Louisiana and Arkansas to accept nominations.
The early nomination phase for the 2011 Triple Crown yielded a list of 364 nominees. The addition of 13 3-year-olds during the late nomination phase lifted total nominees to 377.
Last year’s Triple Crown series produced different winners in each of its three races. Team Valor’s homebred Animal Kingdom scored an upset victory in the Kentucky Derby, and provided his owner, trainer H. Graham Motion and jockey John Velazquez with their first victories in that race. Michael Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge’s Shackleford, fourth in the Derby, rebounded to hold off the charging Animal Kingdom in the Preakness and gave his owners, trainer Dale Romans and jockey Jesus Castanon their first victories in a Triple Crown classic. The Belmont Stakes followed a similar script as George and Lori Hall’s Ruler On Ice, who had been excluded from the 20-horse field in the Kentucky Derby because of insufficient earnings, defeated both Shackleford (fifth) and Animal Kingdom (sixth) in the first Triple Crown triumph for his owners, trainer Kelly Breen and jockey Jose Valdivia Jr.
Animal Kingdom and Shackleford were nominated during last year’s early nomination phase, while Ruler On Ice was made eligible during the late period.
The Kentucky Derby field has been limited to 20 starters since 1975, and accumulated earnings in prestigious graded stakes races along the “Road to the Triple Crown” have determined the field for the 1 ¼-mile classic since 1986. The field for the Preakness, the 1 3/16-mile second jewel of the Triple Crown, is limited to 14 starters, while Belmont Stakes, the “Test of the Champion” and finale of the series at 1 ½ miles, permits a maximum field of 16 horses.
A Triple Crown sweep – one of the most difficult feats in all of sports – has been accomplished on just 11 occasions: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1942), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed (1978). Fifty other horses have finished one win shy of the honor. The current 33-year streak without a Triple Crown winner is the longest in the history of the series. The previous record was a 25-year gap between the Triple Crown earned by Citation in 1948 and Secretariat’s stunning sweep in 1973.
All three 2012 Triple Crown races will be televised live by NBC Sports. Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN) will provide national radio coverage of the three American classic races.
