Will We See a New Triple Crown Winner On Saturday?

Saturday, 9 June, will see the 100th set of races for the title of the American Triple Crown in thoroughbred horse racing.  This day will see the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes; due to World Wars, economic downturns, and the races beginning their runs in different years, this will be the one-hundredth attempt in 2018. 
   Earlier, some owners and trainers felt that their 3-year-olds were not developed enough to compete in a race covering one and a quarter miles the first Saturday in May.  - Remember that a thoroughbred horse is not fully matured until it reaches the real calendar age of 8 years. -  So that, up until the late 1930s, a lot of owners and trainers would not compete in the Kentucky Derby.  Samuel D. Riddle, the owner of Man o'War, would not allow Big Red to run in the Derby in 1920, feeling it was too early; but the colt did go on to win the Preakness and Belmont... 
   In any event, in the 99 contested runnings for the Triple Crown so far there have only been 12 three-year-old colts who could win all three races.  Justify is hoping to be the thirteenth on 9 June. Twenty-three other colts have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown and have either not raced in the Belmont, or have been defeated in the Belmont.
   In this day and age, thoroughbred race horses are not raced that frequently.  There is usually a break of 4 to 6 weeks between races, and some horses are trained for only specific races with specific racing conditions at specific race tracks.  The Triple Crown is a grueling series for young horses.  They race three times at three different tracks, at three different distances, in a period of 5 weeks.  The first race is the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs outside of Louisville, Kentucky and the distance is 1 and 1/4 miles; the second race is just 2 weeks later, at Pimlico Race Track outside of Baltimore, Maryland covering a shorter distance of 1 and 3/16 miles; then, 3 weeks later, the colts race again at Belmont Park,  outside of Elmont, New York, covering a distance of 1 and 1/2 miles on the track known as "Big Sandy."
   Most of these colts will never race again at the distance of 1 and 1/2 miles.  American horses just don't do that.  It is usually a once-in-a-lifetime race distance - especially on our American dirt tracks.  Turf races are another matter - both here in the United States and almost everywhere else in the world.
   Here are a few other things to keep in mind about the Triple Crown races:
*  Secretariat's times for all three races in 1973 are still the fastest times for all three races.
*  Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox is the only winner to sire a Triple Crown winner, Omaha.
*  Alydar is the only horse in history to finish second in all three races, behind Affirmed  in 1978.
*  Eddie Arcaro is the only jockey to have ridden in, and won, two sets of Triple Crown races - on Whirlaway in 1941, and on Citation in 1948.
*  Steve Cauthen is the youngest jockey to win the Triple Crown, at age 18, in 1978.
*  Victor Espinoza is the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown, at age 43,  in 2015.   (If Justify wins on Saturday, with Mike Smith in the irons, then Mike will have the oldest jockey title, at age 52.)
    The previous winners of the American Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing:
1919   -   Sir Barton
1930   -   Gallant Fox
1935   -   Omaha
1937   -   War Admiral
1941   -   Whirlaway
1943   -   Count Fleet
1946   -   Assault
1948   -   Citation
1973   -   Secretariat
1977   -   Seattle Slew
1978   -   Affirmed
2015   -   American Pharoah