Triple CrownThe Triple Crown is the rare feat of winning the top three races - the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. Dubbed the royal jewel of horse racing in America and is the pinnacle for three-year-olds (colts, fillies, geldings) and horse breeders.
In its 74-year-history, only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown, while 21 hopefuls finished only one win shy from the honor. The last horse to capture the crown was Affirmed in 1978.
Although horse racing has been a favorite American sport since the 1700s, the phrase "Triple Crown" was only coined in 1930 when a horse named Gallant Fox won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. It was sportswriter Charles Hutton who brought the phrase into American usage, comparing the conquest to England's own Triple Crown races - the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby, and St. Leger.
The decade of the 1930s produced three Triple Crown winners: Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), and War Admiral (!937). Omaha was sired by Gallant Fox, who is the only Triple Crown winner to sire another Triple Crown champion.
The next decade produced four Triple Crown victors: Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), and Citation (1948). It took another 25 years before Secretariat broke the silence who in 1973 took the Triple Crown honor out of the cobwebs.
Here's the complete list of all Triple Crown winners, and those who nearly embraced it but fell short.