2020--The Year Of The Meaningless Thoroughbred Triple Crown

This year since about March 1, 2020, the Corona Virus has destroyed or damaged many things in America.  One of those which has been damaged the most and talked about the least is horse racing's Thoroughbred Triple Crown, the three races composed of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.  I have not been involved in any aspect of the Thoroughbred horse business for more than twenty-five years but I spent nearly twenty years in the industry from about 1975 to 1994 in jobs ranging from general farm laborer to a five year stint when I was the broodmare and yearling foreman on a large breeding farm in Lexington.  I also spent one year as the manager of a large breeding farm in the Mid-Hudson region of New York.  I like to think I understand more about the Thoroughbred industry than the average person and I still pay attention to happenings in the industry.  

2011 First Turn, Photo by Churchill Downs, Inc.

When the Corona Virus pandemic made it clear that having thousands of people in a confined area was dangerous, the horse racing industry, especially in New York, Maryland, and Kentucky, where the Triple Crown races are held, realized they had to make serious changes in their plans.  Thoroughbred racing is governed by numerous state racing commissions in the states where tracks exist.  These state commissions regulate the industry in many ways including the establishment of and granting of racing dates to the various tracks.  As Belmont, Churchill Downs, and Pimlico where the races are held worked to decide what to do, they considered many options including changing the dates and distances of the races.  The greatest quality of the Triple Crown and what has always made it the most significant yard stick by which to measure three year old Thoroughbred horses has always been the fact that the three races, held on three different tracks at three different distances in a period of only five weeks has and always will make it an incredibly difficult task for a young race horse, a jockey, a trainer, and the assorted others including owners and handlers to win. The upshot of all the planning by all the parties involved was that not only were the dates of the races changed but the order was shuffled and the distance of the Belmont Stakes was shortened from 1 1/2 miles to 1 1/8 miles.  The Belmont was also changed from the last race in the Triple Crown, always to be run exactly 5 weeks after the Kentucky Derby which was always run on the first Saturday in May at 1 1/4 miles.  The Belmont Stakes was scheduled to be run at this seriously shortened distance roughly 3 weeks later than usual on June 20, 2020.  The Kentucky Derby was scheduled to be run at its usual distance on September 5, 2020, almost exactly two months later than usual.  The Preakness Stakes was scheduled to be run at its usual distance of 1/3/16 miles but on October 3, 2020, nearly five months later than the historic date of the third Saturday in May.  All these decisions were based on a complex combination of monetary issues, open racing dates at each venue, public health mandates from each of the states and the federal government, and an attempt by the entire Thoroughbred industry to run three races at the three tracks on some date sometime, at some distance or other which they could look at the  world with an almost straight face and say "This is the 2020 Thoroughbred Triple Crown!"  You can bet your fanny that the primary factor in the decision making process was always monetary.  

What this bizarre and laughable combination of decisions did was to make the so-called 2020 Thoroughbred Triple Crown meaningless.  Historically, the running of the three races over a period of five weeks and culminating in the Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2 miles made the task of one horse, one trainer, and one team not impossible but incredibly difficult and without any possibility of denial that it was the toughest assignment the world could ever give to a horse and a racing team.  Running the 1 1/4 mile Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May gave the horse and team the difficult task of winning a race at a distance nearly the entire field had never yet run at a time very early in the racing season against the best three year olds alive.  It was always run at a time when the grind of the racing season had not yet winnowed the field with injuries.  The Preakness Stakes then always followed the Kentucky Derby in only two weeks at a distance of 1 3/16 miles around two turns on another track in another state.  The winner would have to ship from Kentucky to Maryland and come back in two weeks with enough speed to accomplish the markedly different task of the Preakness.  Then in exactly three weeks ,usually the first Saturday in June, the Belmont Stakes was run on a third track at the much longer distance of 1 1/2 miles which required the horse who had already run two difficult races in two weeks to develop enough stamina and finish to win at the greater distance.  And for these reasons, the traditional, historical Thoroughbred Triple Crown has been won by only 13 horses since 1875 which was the first year the Kentucky Derby was run which created the troika of races.  Sir Barton was the first Triple Crown Winner in 1919 which was 44 years after the series was composed of the three races.  

In the abbreviated Belmont Stakes of 2020 on June 20, 2020, a horse called Tiz The Law was the winner.  He is scheduled, so far as we know to run in the other two races and attempt this so-called Triple Crown.   He is a fairly good horse and could win all three races.  But we will never know if he is worthy to be called a Triple Crown Winner even if he walks away with all three races.  In my opinion the worst thing that could ever happen for Thoroughbred racing and the Thoroughbred industry would be for Tiz The Law to actually win these three drastically changed races.  In my opinion, the Thoroughbred industry, the three tracks, and their three state racing commissions might just as well have said "We are going to randomly draw a race from each track's scheduled racing and call it one event in the 2020 Triple Crown."  They could suddenly have elevated three claiming races to Grade I status and not done any more harm to the industry.  Let's all hope that Tiz The Law breaks badly from the gate on Saturday, September 5, 2020, trails the field around the track at Churchill Downs, and finishes dead last behind the biggest long shot in the field who gallops away to an easy win.  At that point, the Preakness Stakes in October will be clearly recognized for the farce it already is along with the Belmont Stakes and, sadly, the 2020 Kentucky Derby. It would be truly tragic if Tiz The Law suddenly in October found a few million fools attempting to mention his name along with those Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Citation, Whirlaway, Sir Barton, and the 8 other Triple Crown Winners who actually accomplished the task. 

"Raft Tide and Railroad How We Lived and Died" by Edwina Pendarvis--Book Review

Pendarvis, Edwina. Raft Tide And Railroad How We Lived and Died. (Frankfort, KY, Blair Mountain Press 2008)

"Raft Tide and Railroad How We Lived and Died" by Edwina Pendarvis is labeled as memoir although I would tend to call it more of a historiomemoir if creating such a word does not bend the English language too far.  Eddie Pendarvis, as she prefers to be called, and I have been friends for a couple of years and the better I come to know her the better I like her and her work.  She is a retired professor emeritus of the Education Department of Marshall University, an Appalachian author and poet of some note, and the author of numerous books in several fields.  She grew up in several locations in Appalachia including the Left Beaver section of Floyd County Kentucky and Kopperston West Virginia. Several members of her extended family worked in company stores and the coal mines.  

This book covers the history of her family as it immigrated into Pike County Kentucky and then spread out over Appalachia, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Central Kentucky.  The first several chapters are highly fictionalized which, while it may have been necessary due to poor or no documentation two hundred and more years ago, is a quality I do not like.  There is also some fictionalization in a few of the later chapters but it is of a much more creative and deliberate nature and much more acceptable in the work.  Ms. Pendarvis does an excellent job of researching and documenting the available records, both verbal and written, about her ancestors.  The book will be especially popular with individuals who have spent at least part of their lives in the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia.  It is filled with wonderful stories and vignettes about the family, its many unique members, and the complex lives they lived.  Ms. Pendarvis, as a babe in arms, was present at the murder of her maternal grandmother on the porch of the family home in Pike County.  As a result, her maternal uncle Donald Johnson spent most of his remaining youth in Ms. Pendarvis' home under the care of her mother who was his older, married sister.  He grew up to become rich in the Pike County coal industry and eventually made and lost two fortunes.  He was also the breeder and seller of a Thoroughbred colt who set a world record auction price of $10.2 million dollars at the Keeneland Summer Select Yearling Sale in July of 1983.  In a mildly strange coincidence, I was present in the arena at Keeneland the night that colt sold since I had spent nearly twenty years working in the Thoroughbred industry of Central Kentucky.  

This book is full of wonderful moments which remind the native Appalachian reader of home, the old home place, mother's chicken and dumplings, and of the winter evenings when there was enough fire wood but maybe not enough pinto beans.  It takes us back to our youthful aspirations and memories of little failures we thought we had forgotten.  It is well worth the price of admission.  If you are a native Appalachian, buy it, read it, use it to remember the good times, the bad times, and those hopeful times when you knew in your heart that there were better times a coming.