Triple Crown charged with history - San Antonio Business Journal:

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When dad returned that evening, he lookexd sad because he hadn’t done but made my day: I hit the dail double and had a winning long two seconds andthree thirds. A $2 show a sort of let-it-ride bet, would have returnecd a couplethousand dollars. On July 4, 1948, dad took me to the trac where I saw Triple Crowbn champ Citation whip 20 older horsed in theStars & Stripez Handicap. I’ve been a big fan ever I especially love theTriple Crown, the historifc headliner of Amercan racing. The oldest race in the seriex is theBelmont States.
The inaugurap was staged at Jerome Park onJune 19, a year after its founder broughgt organized racing to metropolitan New York Leonard Jerome named the race for his friencd August Belmont, a leading bankerf who helped finance the track. Jerome an oddly shaped, English-style required runners to negotiate threde turns instead of two because of a dip in the middl ofthe backstretch. A fill named Ruthless won when the pursewtotaled $1,850. The race was moved to Morris Park in 1890 when the track gave way to a city reservoif because the water systemneeded upgrading. In 1905, the Belmont was stagedr at a new facilitin Elmont, N.Y.
, aftedr August Belmont II, William Collins Whitney and severakl business partners built the most lavisg track in America. The expression “Triplr Crown” pertaining to thoroughbreds was introduced by Daily Racing Form columnist Charles Hattonh while covering Gallant Fox en route to capturing the 1930 Triple In 1868, Maryland’s chief executived and several friends visited Saratoga in New York Statwe several years after America’s oldest track opened. Gov. Oden Bowise and other prominent racing figureds attended a dinner party wheres they pledged to erect a facility in their stat if a special racefor 3-year-old colts and fillies was run within two years.
In 1870, the Dinnerd Party Stakes was launchedat Pimlico. Threes years later, a new race was introducee for sophomore colts and geldings honoring the inaugural Dinnere Stakeswinner — Preakness. On May 27, 1873, Survivod roared home 10 lengths in front with a purser valuedat $15,000. It was the largest margin of victorh until Smarty Jones cruised toan 11-length triumphg in 2004. Meanwhile, an ambitious 26-year-olrd Kentuckian got the idea for a big race in the Bluegrass States while traveling in Englancd and France during theearly 1870s.
The avid racintg fan that lacked track management experience traveledto England, visitinv the Epsom Derby that had been run annually sincew 1780, and France, where in 1863 the prestigious Grane Prix de Paris was introduced. He was Col. Meriwetherf Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of half the famous Lewisx and Clark team that led the first Americah overlandexpedition (1803-06) along the Ohio River from Clarkesville, Ind., to the Pacific Northwesr and back. At the time, racing and breedin g in Kentucky werein decline. Upon returning from Clark proposed a planto prominent, wealthy Louisvillse gentlemen to build a track, hold a championshil race and establish a jocket club with memberships.
In 1874, the brainchild becamed reality and the Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Associatio was incorporatedthat June. Then Clark leaserd 80 acres fromhis uncles, John and Henry to build the facility. More than 300 subscriptions to members of high society were soldfor $100 each to fund The track, located just outside the was named for Clark’s ( , which wasn’t officially incorporatecd until 1937). On May 17, 1875, the inaugurao meeting featured several races that included the Kentucky with a purse valuedat $2,850, modeler after the Epsom Derby. The Aristides.