Triple Crown winner: Omaha
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.
Omaha - 1935
Ch. c., 1932, by Gallant Fox—Flambino, by Wrack
Owner-breeder: Belair Stud (Ky.)
Trainer: James Fitzsimmons
Jockey: Willie Saunders
Race record: 22 starts ages 2-4, 9 wins, 7 seconds, 2 thirds, $154,755.
At 2: 2nd, Champagne, Junior Champion, Sanford.
At 3: Won Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Dwyer, Arlington Classic.
At 4: Won Victor Wild S. (GB), Queen’s Plate (GB), 2nd Princess of Wales’s (GB), Ascot Gold Cup (GB).
Omaha was in the first crop sired by the 1930 Triple Crown winner, Gallant Fox. Like his sire, Omaha was bred and raced by Belair Stud and trained by “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons. Omaha won the Derby over Roman Soldier and won the Preakness a week later over Firethorn. He then lost the Withers but rebounded to win the Belmont.
At 4, owner William Woodward sent him to England in quest of the Ascot Gold Cup. He was defeated by inches by the filly Quashed. He started four times in England, winning his first two starts – the Victor Wild Stakes and Queen’s Plate – and finishing second in the other two. Shortly after his return to the U.S., the colt suffered a recurrence of an old affliction, and he was retired to stud.
Omaha was a failure as a sire, and in 1943, Claiborne sent him to a farm in New York. He moved to a farm in Nebraska in 1950, and he died in 1959 and was buried at Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack in Omaha.