Triple Crown Winners history

Purchased for $10,000 by owner JKL Ross, Sir Barton was one of racing's best rags-to-roses stories.The chestnut colt went 0-for-6 as a 2-year-old, and in the estimation of most handicappers was entered in the Kentucky Derby to set the pace for his highly regarded stablemate, Billy Kelly. Instead, with John Loftus in the saddle, the H.G. Bedwell-trained colt became the first winner of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes and the horse for whom the term Triple Crown was coined, albeit years later.

Since at least 1923 the accomplishment of winning the three most prestigious US races has been described as winning the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing or simply the Triple Crown for short. The three annual races take place during a five week window in May and June. The first of the three legs is the Kentucky Derby which is held on the first Saturday in May in Louisville, Kentucky at the racing complex known the world over as Churchill Downs. The second race occurs two weeks later on the third weekend in May and is known as the Preakness Stakes. The Preakness, as it is commonly shortened to, is run on the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD. Finally, if the same horse wins both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness in the same month it has the rare opportunity of completing the Triple Crown with a win at the Belmont Stakes (which is held on Long Island, New York) three weeks later in June.Describing Seattle Slew as the first and only undefeated Triple Crown winner in the sport means that he is the only horse to come into the Kentucky Derby (the first of the three Triple Crown races) with an unbeaten record (in this case 6-0) and then go on to win the final three races (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes) to finish the season. What many casual observers of thoroughbred racing do not realize is that the racing season for elite horses effectively ends with the three Triple Crown races and that leading up to that illustrious ending there are numerous other races that the top horses compete in to prepare for the grand stage of the big three races.During the season that concluded with the 1977 Belmont Stakes race Seattle Slew never came in worse than first place in his first six races before sweeping the competition in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes to finish with an unblemished 9-0 record. Of the ten other Triple Crown winners since 1923 none of them other than Seattle Slew has been able to win both the Triple Crown and all of their races during that season leading up to the final three events.source:Sam Noffs