When the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty decided just days after the colt’s win in the first leg of the Triple Crown to skip the Preakness Stakes, racing’s chattering classes leapt to the ramparts to resurrect calls for the Triple Crown schedule to be altered.
Unlike in previous years, however, there was no such spirited debate occurring in the executive offices of the companies that have stakes in the races.
To supporters of a Triple Crown schedule that gives horses more time to recuperate between races, Sovereignty’s defection and the decisions of several other Derby winners over the past six years to skip the Preakness indicated an urgent need to get the ball rolling on a plan to stretch the three Triple Crown races over at least a two-month timespan.
But there’s no such urgency, for the time being, at Pimlico Race Course and Belmont Park, nor, apparently, at NBC, which holds the television contract for the Preakness through 2026. Simply put, the Triple Crown is already in a state of flux due to massive construction projects and pending management and contractual changes, and any serious discussion on altering the schedule will have to wait, according to officials.
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In Maryland, the Preakness this year and next year is in the hands of 1/ST Racing and Gaming, the company that deeded Pimlico to the state last year as part of a legislative package that created a nonprofit state operating entity for the track’s racing industry. After this year’s Preakness, Pimlico will be torn down and rebuilt, with plans to hold the 2027 Preakness at the new property under the management of the Maryland Jockey Club, the state entity currently overseeing racing in the state aside from the Preakness.
“I can honestly say we haven’t had any of those discussions yet,” said Bill Knauf, chief executive of the MJC, when asked whether the company had a position on moving the Preakness from its traditional date two weeks after the Derby. “There’s just too much else going on.”
In New York, the Belmont this year will take place on its traditional date, three weeks after the Preakness. But it will be run for the second year in a row at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York and at 1 1/4 miles, a quarter-mile shorter than the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion” that has traditionally closed the Triple Crown.
Belmont Park, which is operated by the New York Racing Association, hasn’t hosted a live horse race since July 2023. The track has been demolished as part of a $450 million reconstruction project that isn’t scheduled to be completed until September 2026. Though NYRA officials have said that the track may be ready to host the Belmont Stakes next year in front of a partially completed grandstand, it’s almost certain that the race won’t return to its home track or traditional distance until 2027.
All that has left plenty on NYRA’s plate without juggling the arcane nuances of the impact of a shift in the Preakness, which would force a shift in the Belmont, or a decision on its own to run the Belmont on a different date.
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A spokesman for NYRA, Patrick McKenna, declined to comment on the association’s assessment of the debate.
“We have nothing to add,” McKenna said. “NYRA is focused on hosting another successful edition of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival as construction on the new Belmont Park continues on schedule.”
It’s possible that the debate picks up steam next year, when NBC’s contract for the Preakness expires. At that time, 1/ST will be out of the picture, since the company will not have operating rights for the Preakness in 2027. NBC wants the highest ratings for its broadcasts, and ratings are typically higher when the Derby winner runs back in the Preakness.
Lurking behind NBC is FOX Sports, which holds the broadcast rights to the Belmont Stakes through 2030. If a deal is going to be made about changing the Triple Crown schedule, it will likely grow out of the negotiations surrounding the Preakness broadcast rights deal, according to officials.
That’s not to say the debate over the proper spacing of the races will die down in the meantime, only that its resolution is years off. Discussion over lengthening the time between the races was reaching a fever pitch when American Pharoah finally ended a 37-year drought between Triple Crown winners in 2015. Justify’s Triple Crown run three years later seemed to quiet the critics once again, but now Sovereignty’s defection has breathed new life into the debate.
“I love how hard it is to do, which makes it so special,” said Steve Asmussen, the Hall of Fame trainer who skipped the Preakness with his two also-rans in this year’s Derby but is starting the fresh-legged Clever Again in the race this year – seven weeks after the colt’s last race. “And then would it be making it easier? Does it dilute it? I mean, that’s a great question. And I think that it’ll continue to be debated.”
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