Triple Crown winner: Gallant Fox
Twelve horses have won the American Triple Crown – composed of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes – which was patterned after the English Triple Crown that dates to 1809. When Sir Barton won the three races in 1919, it was not considered a Triple Crown feat. The three races were not acknowledged as being tied together as the Triple Crown until the 1930s. The Thoroughbred Racing Associations commissioned Cartier to craft a Triple Crown trophy – with three sides representing the three jewels – in 1950, and the trophy retroactively was awarded to the eight previous winners of the three races. In 1973, Secretariat was the first horse to be awarded the trophy after he accomplished the sweep.
GALLANT FOX - 1930
B. c., 1927, by Sir Gallahad III—Marguerite, by Celt
Owner-breeder: Belair Stud (Ky.)
Trainer: James Fitzsimmons
Jockey: Earl Sande
Race record: 17 starts ages 2-3, 11 wins, 3 seconds, 2 thirds, $328,165.
At 2: Won Junior Champion, Flash.
At 3: Won Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Dwyer, Lawrence Realization, Wood Memorial, etc.
Gallant Fox, owned and bred by Belair Stud, the nom de course of New York banker and Jockey Club Chairman William Woodward, was a good but not great 2-year-old, winning several stakes.
He blossomed into an imposing individual at 3 when he defeated rivals such as Questionnaire and Whichone to win the Triple Crown and stamp himself as one of the great Thoroughbreds of his time. He was a member of the first crop sired in this country by Sir Gallahad III. The “Fox of Belair,” as Gallant Fox was dubbed, was trained by James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons. His only loss at 3 came in the Travers, in which he ran second to the 100-1 longshot Jim Dandy.
He retired to stud at Claiborne Farm and sired the 1935 Triple Crown winner, Omaha, in his first crop and the 1936 Belmont winner, Granville, in his second. He is the only Triple Crown winner to sire a Triple Crown winner. Gallant Fox died Nov. 13, 1954, and was buried alongside his sire and dam at Claiborne.