Preakness losing relevance with quick turnaround after Derby. It's time to make changes.

For all of horse racing’s problems, the Kentucky Derby remains one of the strongest brands and most anticipated events in sports. Despite a horrifying week in which seven horses died following incidents on the track or in training, more than 150,000 people packed into Churchill Downs on May 6 and nearly 15 million on television watched Mage become the 149th winner of America’s most important race.

The Preakness has never had as much cachet with the general public. But as horse racing evolves, it’s fair to ask whether the second leg of the Triple Crown is close to losing its relevance even within the Thoroughbred industry. 

When the starting gate is loaded Saturday, only one of the seven horses in it — Mage — also contested the Derby. Were it not for the allure of possibly becoming the 14th Triple Crown winner, he probably wouldn’t be in Baltimore either.

The Preakness, in theory, remains high on the list of most prestigious races that every owner and trainer wants to win. But the traditional timing of the Triple Crown — two weeks between the Derby and Preakness, three weeks between the Preakness and Belmont — no longer fits the way modern racehorses are managed.

Decades ago, it was common for horses to run as often as they could. Citation, the 1948 Triple Crown winner, had 15 races under his belt before the Derby — including one just a week earlier. And for good measure, he won the Jersey Derby between the Preakness and the Belmont. 

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Horses that durable don’t exist anymore. Among the many reasons are commercial breeding practices, which emphasized speed over stamina, to overuse of medications that have masked pain and created generations of unsound animals. These days, one race a month would be considered a pretty rigorous schedule. 

The Triple Crown has not adjusted, and as a result, it’s now pretty common for those who didn’t win the Derby to skip the trip to Baltimore and aim for other big races later in the year. Last year, just three Derby horses ran in the Preakness. In 2021, it was just two. 

Adding more space between the Triple Crown races has been a long-running topic of debate in horse racing circles. As far back as 2009, you can find quotes from Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas suggesting that the Triple Crown should be run over three months instead of five weeks so that the best 3-year-olds can run against each other as often as possible.

That’s how things used to be in the 1970s and 80s, when you had some great rivalries that carried through the Triple Crown and brought more attention to the sport later in the year: Secretariat vs. Sham, Affirmed vs. Alydar, Alysheba vs. Bet Twice, Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer. 

But plenty have argued the other way, that the Triple Crown should remain one of the most difficult achievements in sports and that it would be tough to keep the public’s attention if there were more lag time between the races. 

Graham Motion, the 2011 Derby-winning trainer who is regarded as one of the most careful horsemen in the game, tweeted this week: “Don't mess with the Triple Crown, good luck Mage!”

In the past, I’ve leaned more toward Motion and those who do not want the Triple Crown to be easier to win. The rarity of the achievement is what has given it such an aura. After Citation, there was a 25-year gap before Secretariat sparked an era of three Triple Crown winners in a six-year span. Then, just when it seemed impossible in the modern era, American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) proved it could be done. 

It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be rare. It’s supposed to be achievable only for the historically special animals. But if we’re at the point where the two-week gap reduces the Preakness to irrelevance, it might be time to tweak some things. 

The entire point of the Triple Crown series is to match the best 3-year-olds against each other and to see if one of them can win three in a row. That's not really happening anymore. The intrigue Saturday is purely about whether Mage is good enough to win the race and move on to the Belmont with a chance to be the 14th Triple Crown winner. But in terms of the opposition, it’s just not a very compelling group. 

Ideally, you’d want to see whether Mage could run down Two Phil’s again like he did in Louisville with a shorter stretch run and a softer pace up front. You’d want to see whether a horse like Tapit Trice that started slow and ran into a lot of traffic in the Derby would improve with a cleaner trip. 

Instead, after going 0-for-4 with his Derby entries, trainer Brad Cox will send out First Mission as the second choice in the Preakness. The third choice is Bob Baffert-trained National Treasure, who is 1-for-5 and finished fourth in the Santa Anita Derby. 

Sure, either of those horses could win the race. But outside of Mage, the Preakness is a race of second-stringers and trainers hoping to catch a piece of the purse. That makes it tough to get real excited — either from a fan or wagering perspective — about the second jewel of the Triple Crown. 

A dramatic overhaul of the series, or changing the distance of the races as some have suggested, would be a mistake. But it might be time to tweak some things. 

Adding a third week between the Derby and the Preakness is almost a no-brainer at this point. It would still be a faster-than-usual turnaround but would likely entice more trainers to give their Derby horses a second chance. Another week between the Preakness and Belmont would be more controversial but should also be up for debate. 

There should also be a conversation about financial incentives for participation. The Preakness and Belmont currently offer a $1.5 million purse, which is only half a million more than it was in 2003. If you want to distinguish these races as special, it should be reflected in the prize money. 

In the 1980s, after Derby winner Spend a Buck skipped the Preakness to chase $2 million attached to a series of races in New Jersey, Chrysler sponsored a bonus structure that offered $5 million to a Triple Crown winner and $1 million to a horse that had the best combined finish for all three races. 

Maybe it’s time to resuscitate something like that so that the prestige of the Triple Crown isn’t forever lost to load management. 

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