Parity or Mediocrity: In Search of a Dominant Three-Year-Old

By Bob Hill
Tracksideview Feature Columnist —-

American Pharoah; Anne M. Eberhardt

It seems like a lifetime ago that most of us were thrilled by the dominance of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Horseracing fans had waiting 37 years for a three-year-old to win all three legs of the Triple Crown, plus American Pharoah added an exclamation point with his victory in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In the ensuing time since the retirement of Pharoah, six different colts have won Triple Crown races. None of those emerged as a dominant horse as an older runner, although Gun Runner did emerge from the three-year-old class of 2016 to become the dominant classic horse in training today.

Last year (2017), saw nine different colts win the 12 major races for three-year-olds. Always Dreaming seemed to be the emerging star in the spring of the year winning both the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby. His fade, however, was fast and far after his win at Churchill Downs. Girvin won the Louisiana Derby and added the Haskell Invitational to his win list in July. He proved to be a competitive runner throughout the year, but dominant is not an adjective that is used often to describe him. For the second year in a row, a Bob Baffert trainee, West Coast, emerged in late summer by winning the Travers against the survivors of the Triple Crown grind. He also won the Pennsylvania Derby later in the year and is included on the list of top four-year-olds.

To the casual fan, the Triple Crown races represent their introduction to the stars of the game. When parity, or mediocrity, shows up in those three races, interest wains. We are now entering into the Derby prep season where the opportunity exists for a dominant colt to emerge as horseracing’s newest star. Thus far, we are off to a rocky start. Both the Risen Star and the Fountain of Youth Stakes were won by long-odds runners loose on the lead. Neither were atop the “experts” list of likely Triple Crown threats. Neither is creating much excitement by jumping to the top of the list of major contenders.

The time is at hand to see if 2018 will be a repeat of 2017, with no dominant runners emerging in the prep races or in the Triple Crown series itself. Because I enjoy the sport more when one or more stars are in the mix, I am hoping that a couple of this year’s promising colts step forward and create a buzz that attracts both the casual and the serious fan. Time will tell.