Churchill, NYRA to hold 3-year-old Championship Series that does not include Preakness
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a joint venture that could very well have ramifications on the Triple Crown, Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association on Monday announced the creation of a six-race series for 3-year-olds that will include the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and award $5 million in bonus money based on a points structure for participation.
The Thoroughbred Championship Series will start in 2027 with the Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs and the June 5 Belmont Stakes, which will return to Belmont Park and 1 1/2 miles after being run at 1 1/4 miles for three years at Saratoga.
The other races in the series will include the Matt Winn in early July at Churchill and the Jim Dandy in late July/early August and the Travers in late August, both at Saratoga. It will conclude with a yet-to-be-named championship race at Churchill in September. Exact dates for the non-Triple Crown races have not yet been set.
Each of the six races will be broadcast on national television, with the Churchill races airing on NBC and the NYRA races broadcast on FOX.
The Kentucky Derby and Belmont are both part of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. The Preakness, the middle jewel run two weeks after the Derby and three weeks before the Belmont, was not included in this series where horses earn points for certain finishing positions in the aforementioned races.
David O’Rourke, president and CEO of NYRA, in a late afternoon conference call with reporters said the Maryland Jockey Club was not included in these conversations but that the intent of the series is not to disrupt the Triple Crown.
“This is a very familiar format to the casual sports fan, it’s a points system across the entire season,” O’Rourke said. “This builds on top of the Triple Crown or alongside it, it doesn’t change anything with it. The Triple Crown is still one of the rarest things in sports.”
O’Rourke spoke at a rescheduled conference call with a handful of reporters after a regularly scheduled 4 p.m. call that included Churchill CEO Bill Carstanjen was cut short when pre-submitted questions were not asked by the host of the conference call. While O’Rourke was willing to get on a second call, Carstanjen was not.
During his remarks on the first call, Carstanjen said “each of the six races matter as we build new traditions and standards of equine excellence culminating with the crowning of a champion at the finale of the series to be held in September at Churchill Downs.”
The September race is yet to be defined. Currently, Churchill has the $500,000 Lukas Classic in late September for 3-and-up at 1 1/8 miles and the $300,000 Bourbon Flight for 3-year-olds at 1 3/16 miles. It is likely one of those races will be repurposed in some fashion to fit into this series.
Details were incomplete about what it takes to win the series. O’Rourke said that horses must compete in at least four of the six races and indicated there will be a tiered-points system with the Kentucky Derby and Belmont offering higher point values than the other races.
O’Rourke did confirm that the $5 million prize pool will be paid out to the top eight point-earners. O’Rourke also said that the expectation is each individual race will have a minimum purse of $1 million.
The Derby, at $5 million, the Belmont at $2 million and the Travers, at $1.25 million, already meet that threshold. The Jim Dandy and Matt Winn were each worth $500,000 this year. The Matt Winn, which was run the day after this year’s Belmont Stakes, will likely move to the first weekend in July in 2027.
In the last two years, the Kentucky Derby winner has not run back in the Preakness but waited the five weeks to run back in the Belmont Stakes. It has led to discussions about possibly extending the time between Triple Crown races, something that could be hindered by this series announcement.
Dan Illman, a spokesman for the Maryland Jockey Club, said the MJC “would not comment on the series because we just learned of the announcement.”
Earlier this year, CDI attempted to purchase the intellectual property rights of the Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan for $85 million from 1/ST Racing. But the state of Maryland exercised its right of first refusal to match that offer to buy those rights back.
Media rights for the Preakness have expired, and it is believed that NBC and FOX are bidding for those rights with a decision on who won that bidding war expected in the near future.
O’Rourke believes the combination of NBC and FOX broadcasting these six races will have a positive impact on the sport.
“One of the powerful things we have is the ability to use both broadcasters to co-promote, so it’s really getting more exposure for the game across the entirety basically from the spring into the early fall,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke said it’s possible that, depending how this works, other divisions could be molded into a series as well.
“This gives us a foundation to build off of,” O’Rourke said. “We’re starting with 3-year-olds, conversations could go into other divisions.”
Horsemen seemed intrigued by the idea of this series.
Bob Baffert, who has won a record 17 Triple Crown races, said he’s intrigued by the series, but, for him at least, it won’t impact his participation in the Preakness, a race he has won a record eight times.
“I hope I have a horse good enough and if I do and I won the Derby, I’d still run in the Preakness and the Triple Crown because it’s part of history, and the classics are still very exciting,” Baffert said.
Baffert said he hopes the series will extend fan interest beyond the Triple Crown races.
“Instead of being honed in on the classics, they’ll be honed in on everything else because usually after the Belmont they quit watching,” he said.
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Trainer Todd Pletcher, a two-time Derby winner and four-time Belmont Stakes winner, said: “I think it’s interesting. Anything we can do to promote excitement and have these 3-year-olds run against each other more often and hopefully generate more interest from the fans and create new fans, all for it.”
Mark Casse found the series interesting for a different reason.
“What I like, honestly, is New York and Kentucky working together,” Casse said. “That’s important because going forward that’s our future, Churchill Downs and NYRA. They can do so much.”
Casse believes this series will result in horses running more frequently.
“Without a doubt, money talks,” he said. “I like the points system and I like that because it creates interest and hope and dreams.”
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