Winning the Kentucky Derby (G1) is historic. What trainer Kenny McPeek did in getting the win at Churchill Downs the first Saturday in May is a crowning achievement for anyone. But it was made all the more impressive when you factor in that McPeek joins an illustrious club.
There are now only five living trainers who have won all three Triple Crown races: D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, Nick Zito, Barclay Tagg, and now McPeek.
“I worked hard for a long time to get there,” McPeek said. “This is going on 40 years doing this and it’s been a long journey. It’s not been easy, but at the same time, it’s been great.”
It’s easy to take for granted how difficult it is to catch lightning in a bottle and win either the Derby, the Preakness Stakes (G1), or the Belmont Stakes (G1).
McPeek won his first classic in 2002 with Sarava in the Belmont Stakes. He waited 18 years before finding himself in the winner’s circle of another Triple Crown race. Tagg’s path to a personal Triple Crown was similar because of his wait to complete the trifecta. He won the first two legs in 2003 with Funny Cide and completed the feat 17 years later with Tiz the Law . Tagg, like McPeek, has won each race once.
Zito didn’t have to wait nearly 20 years to have all three races on his résumé. The Hall of Famer picked up two Derby wins, first in 1991 and then again in 1994, and followed that second win two years later by getting the 1996 Preakness. It wasn’t until 2004 with Birdstone that he added the missing piece. Zito won the Belmont one more time in 2008.
The other two members of the illustrious club, Lukas and Baffert, have won each race numerous times.
Lukas’ first Triple Crown win came in 1980 but didn’t have all three to his name until 1994. The next year, he won all three—just not with the same horse. Thunder Gulch’s two victories sandwiched the Preakness win by Timber Country.
That was part of a unique stretch for Lukas who from 1994-96 won seven of nine Triple Crown races with five different horses. Overall, he has 14 Triple Crown wins.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas on the track at Pimlico Race Course
“I was hoping I could do it with one horse and Baffert did it. … We had won six of these in a row, six Triple Crown races in a row but we won with different horses,” Lukas said. “That might be harder to do than one, I don’t know. I often wonder about that. If you have one super horse it carries you through all three or is it better to have like we did?”
Baffert is the outlier. His first two Triple Crown wins came in 1997 with Silver Charm. Then in 2001, Point Given won the Belmont to give Baffert his personal Triple Crown. He has 17 victories in classics.
For the Hall of Famer, he said the personal Triple Crown was nice, but relishes the two occasions on which his horses won all three classics rather than his personal milestone.
“It was a different feeling than winning the Derby,” he said. “It was more about the horse. Historically, it’s about the horse when you win the Triple Crown. Every time I come (to Pimlico Race Course) I see all these signs back here of all these Triple Crown winners, I come in here and get beat in the Triple Crown and I look at these horses. What did they have that my other ones didn’t have? And I finally realized American Pharoah and Justify, they were just superior, superior horses.”
Is there a commonality between these five trainers, something historians and fans can point to as a marker of their success?
Baffert and McPeek pointed to longevity. The fact that it took more than 10 years to win all three Triple Crown races for four of the five supports that assessment.
But Lukas, who has been at this for half a century, said they all have something else going for them.
“The clientele that are able to step up and acquire good horses and put them in your care I think is as important as knowing what to do with them when you get them,” he said. “Obviously, you got to know what to do with them when you get them. But there’s a lot of solid trainers out there that will probably never win all three or even one that do not have the clientele base to put them in a position to win one.”
With the need for longevity, a consistent supply of top-flight horses, and some trainers eschewing the Preakness, the number of trainers who may add this achievement is likely dwindling.
Should a trainer check the box next to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, it is not a ticket to the Hall of Fame.
Winning a Triple Crown in one season like Billy Turner did with Seattle Slew never brought him enshrinement. And despite their accomplishments, neither McPeek nor Tagg are in that most elite group.
But after winning the Derby—not to mention also winning the Kentucky Oaks (G1) the day before—there has been a lot more talk surrounding when, not if, McPeek gets the call.
“I’ve been around a lot of Hall of Famers, have admired them and I’m friends with them. A lot of them called me after winning the Derby and the Oaks,” McPeek said. “It’s somebody else’s decision. I don’t know who makes the Hall of Fame decisions but it would be an honor.
“I don’t think they’re going to write me a check for going in, but, I’d be thrilled to go in.”
Leave feedback about this