Will we see a Triple Crown winner in 2024?
The landmark 150th Kentucky Derby proved to be a memorable one, with Mystik Dan beating out two of the race’s favorites, Sierra Leone and Fierceness, in a photo finish at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
The thrilling triumph puts Mystik Dan one-third of the way to a rare Triple Crown. However, it’s not a lock that the Derby winner will compete in the upcoming Preakness Stakes.
“We’re not committed to the Preakness, not yet,” trainer Kenny McPeek said, via The Associated Press. “I ran him back once in two weeks and it completely backfired on me. … So, we’ll just watch him over the next week. It’ll be one of those (situations) where we’ll probably take it up to the last minute.
“We’ll let him tell us.”
If Mystik Dan is in the Preakness field, the horse will be looking to take another step toward history. Here’s what to know about the Triple Crown:
The Triple Crown features three races for 3-year-old thoroughbred horses, with just weeks separating each event. A horse that emerges victorious in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes is dubbed a Triple Crown winner.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, with Sierra Leone and Forever Young following in 2nd and 3rd.
The Triple Crown begins with the Kentucky Derby, followed by the Preakness Stakes and then the Belmont Stakes.
The Belmont Stakes is the longest race at 1 1/2 miles. The Kentucky Derby is 1 1/4 miles long, while the Preakness Stakes is the shortest at 1 3/16 miles.
Winning the Triple Crown is very hard to do. There have been just 13 Triple Crown winners in horse racing history, with the first one coming over 100 years ago.
Sir Barton was the first to claim the Triple Crown title all the way back in 1919, while Justify was the most recent to do so in 2018.
Here’s a full look at the 13 Triple Crown winners:
This next leg of the Triple Crown will take place on Saturday, May 18, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
The Triple Crown wraps up with the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 8, at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The race comes just over a month after the Kentucky Derby.
Editor’s note: This story was first published in 2023
