The Triple Crown of horse racing is sometimes a magnificent thing. If the Kentucky Derby winner races in it, then the Preakness is important. The Belmont's relevance is based on whether there is a horse running for the triple crown. Otherwise, the Preakness and Belmont are just nice horse races.
In my layman's view, there is a problem with the way the triple crown is set up: The races are too close together.
I believe there should be three to four weeks between the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. Today's horses are different than they were 40 years ago. They are supposedly bred for more speed but they are definitely more fragile. For this reason, very few of today's horses run in all three races.
More than 20 years ago, D. Wayne Lukas suggested moving the Preakness to Memorial Day weekend and the Belmont to July 4. He was correct then and he is more correct now.
The racing purist in you says "No way!" I'll remind you baseball used to schedule a bunch of doubleheaders. Now, they don't. World Series games were only played in the daytime. In 1968, Denny McClain threw 28 complete games. Today, starting pitchers seldom go past the sixth or seventh innings.
Other sports change, and so can horse racing.
Do you agree or not? Call us with your thoughts.
I'm Bill lamb, and that's my Point of View.
