England's Triple Crown

In case you missed it the UK Triple Crown of horse racing has also begun with the running of the 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket Race Track, a 1 mile straight sprint.   "Camelot" came away the winner of the 2012 race and is the favorite for the upcoming Epsom Derby.

The second leg of the English Triple Crown is this Saturday June 2nd with the 233rd running of the Epsom Derby, 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yard track, and this will also be the official kick off to the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II.

The 3rd and final leg of the English Triple Crown is the St Leger Stakes run at Town Moor in Doncaster, Yorkshire.  This is 1 mile,6 furlongs and 132 yard track.



All of these tracks are considered "Flat Tracks" and are not set up like american tracks with 4 turns and 2 straightaway or "frontstretch" and "backstretch", they are long and winding tracks with no real turns.

These are really courses that test the straightaway speed (Guineas) and stamina (Epsom and St Leger).

The last horse to win the English Triple Crown was Nijinsky II in 1970, and the first since 1935.

1964 Kentucky Derby

The 1964 Derby was highlighted by the first win for a Canadian horse at the Derby. That horse was the legendary Northern Dancer. He would go on to become the most successful sire of the 20th century. He won the Derby in the record time of 2 minutes flat. That record stood until 1973 when "the living, breathing locomotive" Secretariat ran the course in 1 min 59.4 seconds. The only horse to break the 2 min barrier since 1973 was Monarchos in 2001 with a winning time of 1 min 59.97 secs.
Called the Sire of Champions Northern Dance sired 147 stakes winners including the great Nijinsky II who was the last horse to win England's Triple Crown in 1970. One of his other sons Northern Taste was the leading sire in Japan for 10 years.
Northern Dancer was retired from stud in 1987 and died in 1990.