Rastall Ramblings:Sovereignty Skipping Preakness Highlights Need for Triple Crown changes

An increasingly familiar theme is set to play out at the Preakness Stakes this Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore: the dream of a Triple Crown winner has been dashed long before the horses even make their way to the starting gate.

At the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby earlier this month, Sovereignty outdueled favorite Journalism down the home stretch to hit the wire first and win the latest two-minute run for the roses.

Just three days after that triumph, trainer Bill Mott let the organizers of the Preakness Stakes know that Sovereignty would not be continuing his pursuit of the Triple Crown at Pimlico. It’s a disappointment for the sport on the heels of the most-watched Kentucky Derby since 1989, but it’s also nothing new. This marks the fourth time in the last seven years that the Derby winner will miss the Preakness.

Neither the Preakness nor the Belmont Stakes carry nearly the same Americana cachet as the Kentucky Derby, so the intrigue in a horse going for the Triple Crown means a lot for both in terms of attracting casual viewers.

Sovereignty skipping the Preakness has revived a common debate within horse racing: Should the Triple Crown calendar be altered to accommodate a changed sport?

Those against a change argue that the Triple Crown should inherently be a highly difficult challenge and that spreading the races out further waters down the accomplishment.

I can understand where they’re coming from to a degree, but it seems to simply ignore the realities of the sport these days. Horses are trained far different than they were many years go. Three races in a five-week span are just not something any trainer would consider for their horses outside of the context of a Triple Crown.

The debate over whether to change the calendar continuously popped up during the 37-year wait for another Triple Crown after Affirmed pulled it off in 1978. That died down a bit once American Pharaoh ended the drought in 2015 and Justify became the sport’s 13th Triple Crown winner in 2018.

But no one has come close to sniffing the Triple Crown since Justify. And when the Kentucky Derby winner skipping the Preakness is no longer a rarity, can the issue really be ignored anymore?

It’s not like it would be unprecedented for the sport. The order of the Triple Crown races was different at times early in the 20th century, and the current five-week calendar for it has only been in place since 1969.

The first Triple Crown winner was Sir Barton in 1919. He won all three Triple Crown races within a 32-day span and even ran in another race between the Preakness and the Belmont.

Horse racing is a sport that is constantly trying to stay relevant while also occasionally trying to weather controversies over the treatment of horses in the sport. Spreading out the Triple Crown races could provide a little help with both.

How exactly a revamped Triple Crown calendar would look is also a matter of debate. My favorite solution comes from Sports Illustrated columnist Pat Forde, who suggests keeping the Derby on the first Saturday in May, moving the Preakness to the first Saturday in June and moving the Belmont to the Fourth of July.

The Triple Crown should be a showcase of the best three-year-old horses all competing against one another. With the current calendar, that simply does not happen the way it should, and it will continue not to unless changes are made.