Preakness Snubbed as Kentucky Derby and Belmont Launch Rival Triple Crown Series
Should the new Thoroughbred Championships Series have included the Preakness?
Churchill Downs, which runs the Kentucky Derby, and the New York Racing Association, which runs the Belmont Stakes, announced this week a new six-race postseason format called the Thoroughbred Championships Series, worth $5 million and nicknamed The Chase for the Vase. The series links the Derby, Belmont, the Matt Winn Stakes, Jim Dandy Stakes, Travers Stakes and a yet-to-be-named championship race into a season-long points chase, but it does not include the Preakness Stakes, the middle leg of the Triple Crown.
The snub comes as the Preakness is making its own changes. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the Maryland Jockey Club announced this week that starting in 2027 the Preakness will move from its traditional third Saturday in May date to a Sunday eight days after the Derby, the first Sunday running in the race's 152-year history. The shift coincides with a $500 million reconstruction of Pimlico Race Course and is meant to give horses more recovery time between races.
NYRA president David O'Rourke said the new series is designed to work like a playoff, giving fans a reason to follow the sport's best three-year-olds from May into the fall. No horse has completed the Derby-Preakness double since Justify in 2018, and trainers including Bob Baffert have said modern horses race less often than in past decades, making the traditional two-week Derby-to-Preakness turnaround harder to justify.
The case for:
Leaving out the middle leg of the Triple Crown undercuts a 150-year-old tradition and treats one of the sport's three most historic races as expendable.
Excluding the Preakness fragments the sport at the exact moment it needs unified promotion, not two competing showcases run by rival track operators.
The Triple Crown's difficulty, winning three demanding races in five weeks, is what makes it historic, and carving out the middle leg cheapens that legacy for future champions.
The case against:
Backers of the new series say horses today race far less often than in past decades, and a longer schedule protects the sport's biggest stars from injury while still building excitement into the fall.
Supporters argue a season-long points format, similar to what other pro sports leagues use, could grow year-round interest in a sport that struggles to hold attention outside the five-week Triple Crown window.
NYRA and Churchill Downs control the tracks and prize money for the Derby and Belmont, and organizers say the new series reflects business realities the century-old Triple Crown format doesn't account for.
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