Courtesy of: wfuv.org
Affirmed, the second of back to back Triple Crown winning thoroughbreds, crossed the finish line at Belmont Park in 1978 and became the 11th horse to claim all three of horseracing’s most coveted jewels. My parents were married just a couple of months later, and in November of 1981, I was born. In my nearly 33 years of life, I have never witnessed a Triple Crown victory.
From a young age, I was drawn to the sports world; not just as a participant, but as a student and historian of athletic competition. In between sessions of catch in the backyard with my father, I’d study the statistics on the backs of my baseball cards. I’d watch NCAA basketball and listen to my Dad’s stories of great Maryland players of the past. I’d hear the crackle of his sinking voice as he described the greatest college basketball game of all time; a 103-100 overtime game in the 1974 ACC Tournament Final that saw our Terps come up short to eventual NCAA Champion NC State. Sports became a friend of mine as a kid, a passion as I grew up, and now – something of an occupation as an adult. And I’ve been very lucky.
In 1983, the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series. While I was merely a toddler at the time, I still claim ownership in that title. The Baltimore Ravens have hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice in my lifetime; once as a teenager and most recently as an adult, more capable of appreciating the fleeting and rarefied air that accompanies a Super Bowl championship. I cried as my Terps let their first Final Four win slip away, only to rejoice the following year as they cut down the nets as National Champs. But I’ve never seen a Triple Crown winner.
I’ve been blessed to see some of the great all time individual performances in sports history during my life. Watching Tiger Woods during his heyday in the early 2000’s was like watching DaVinci paint or Mozart compose. Michael Phelps’ 2008 Olympic Games may take decades to be fully appreciated as the historically dominating performance that it was. I’ve seen perfect games in baseball. I’ve seen epic 5-set Finals in tennis. I’ve seen multiple NBA dynasties constructed around players that many debate as the best of all time. But I’ve never seen a Triple Crown winner.
I’ve come close. Since Affirmed, the 3rd horse to take all 3 races during the 1970s, this Triple Crown drought has been nearly quenched on a dozen separate occasions. From Spectacular Bid in 1979 (nearly making the Triple Crown seem downright ordinary) to the most recent challenger, I’ll Have Another in 2012, 12 horses have come to Belmont on an early June Saturday with dreams of making history, only to leave disappointed.
What is it that drives our intrigue and hunger for a Triple Crown winner? For me, it comes down to two factors. First, while every horse is mounted and guided by a jockey; this is the only prominent athletic competition embraced by the public that features non-humans. When we think about athletes and the grand stage of professional (and amateur) competition, we relate to them. We empathize with them, take sides for and against them, live their struggles and achievements through them. We do this because even though we can’t read their minds, we know what their thinking and feeling in these moments.
We can’t do that with horses. We can’t know what they think; feel what they feel. The idea that we cannot relate to the competitors of this sport is mysterious and enigmatic and we can’t help but find ourselves in wonderment about it all.
The other factor, while less romantic in theory, may be more practical.
Every year, like clockwork, a team will win the World Series. A team will become Super Bowl Champions. A city will celebrate their Stanley Cup Champions and another (or possibly the same) will cheer on their NBA Champs. There will be a Masters champion, a Wimbledon victor, and 247 Bowl Winners (that number may be slightly off). Whether the champions of these sports are ones that we, as fans, root for is irrelevant. The point is that someone will take these titles.
Yes, every year will tally a Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes winner; that is true. But as history and this column have proven, every year will not yield a Triple Crown. The Boston Red Sox went 86 years between World Series titles, and while it brought no solace to Boston fans, the sport of baseball still produced a champion in every one of them.
The sport of horseracing doesn’t follow this script. There are not 30 cities vying for a title that one will inevitably claim at the end. There are just these horses; these animals that we pretend to know but cannot fully understand. These muscular specimens of power and speed that we, as a whole, get behind in hopes of rooting one to victory three times over the course of five weeks. This is why horseracing is different. This is why the elusive Triple Crown lures us in year after year. This is why I’ll be glued to my television next Saturday, with knots in my stomach, adopting California Chrome as my own and cheering him towards a place in history. Because I’ve seen some great moments in sports during my lifetime; but I’ve never seen a Triple Crown.
