My family spent many years and many dollars rehabbing racehorses for the show ring. I've seen crushed navicular bones, broken sesamoids, splints, nerved legs, and other horrors horses have endured and kept going. Thoroughbreds will keep going until they literally break apart. It's the responsibility of the owners and trainers to know when they've reached the limit. And oftentimes, owners and trainers will be at odds.
In my opinion, the way they have the TC set up is detrimental. People will push the winner through the races because they would be risking too much money, time and fame not to. The TC should be run in May, June and July. That would take the whole spoiler element out of it and put all the horses on equal footing with regards to recovery.
And Sir Barton won the first triple crown in 1919.
I do not mean to be condescending, but there simply is no comparison between a human choosing his destiny and a horse who cannot. They cannot tell us how they really feel, so we make judgements to be careful with them. Thus they do not enter every race and should not be expected to. Thus is it ridiculous to expect every horse to remain in the series, but if they don’t, the Belmont will commonly be 3 horses.
The Triple Crown was not recognized until even vaguely when War Admiral won in 1937. It is a RESULT of the importance of 3 races that happened to be scheduled near each other regularly. It was not created itself and then the races spun off for its fulfillment. There was no “TC” when Sir Barton won the races, they were each independent races. Someone made a vague comment about a “triple crown” when Gallant Fox won all 3 in 1930. It was mentioned more when his son Omaha won in ‘35. The TC was sort of recognized by War Admiral, but wasn’t really celebrated until the ‘40s. There was no trophy until after Citation won in ‘48, which meant ironically waiting 25 years to hand it out to Sec.
Three races in three months. I like it. And I agree with you on the Thoroughbreds. Had a jumper that was amazing on a speed course, but it took its toll, on him and me.