Sporting Life
Nijinsky completes the Triple Crown
Nijinsky completes the Triple Crown

Let's talk about the Triple Crown and the elusive dream it remains for so many

By Sporting Life
Horse Racing
Mon April 06, 2020 · 5y ago

David Ord talks all things Triple Crown. Now we want your memories of Nijinsky, Oh So Sharp and Camelot - and can Pinatubo end the wait?

We want your feedback. What are your memories of Nijinsky, Oh So Sharp and Camelot? How will the Triple Crown be won again? Could it be Pinatubo? Check out the details of how to contact us towards the foot of the article...

I’ve seen one Triple Crown winner, Oh So Sharp in 1985. She was a brilliant filly and fortunate enough to be trained by Sir Henry Cecil (just plain old Henry in those days).

It was a close-run thing in the 1000 Guineas. No, make that a desperate thing. Under a rhythmic drive from the peerless Steve Cauthen, she nailed Bella Colora and Al Bahatri in the very final stride.

It was more straightforward in the Oaks, a turn of foot over a furlong out carrying her clear - then came the Leger.

In against he colts, up in trip and with Lester Piggott attempting to break her from the front aboard stablemate Lanfraco, it was tough. But so was she. In front two out she fended off the renewed challenge of her near neighbour and the up-and-coming Phardante to the roars of the Yorkshire crowd.

A Triple Crown.

Oh So Sharp at Doncaster

But not the colts’ one – that hasn’t been won since the wonderful Nijinsky in 1970. I’m too young to remember him ruling the roost, but John Magnier isn’t.

That magnificent colt was one of the legends of first golden era for Ballydoyle under Vincent O’Brien. Finding a horse to follow in his hoofprints is just about the one target to elude the second O’Brien dynasty.

They thought they’d unearthed one in Camelot in 2015.

He was a son of Montjeu with a middle-distance pedigree and after a two-race, two win, juvenile career (highlighted by an impressive Racing Post Trophy success) he was sent off the 15/8 favourite for the Guineas.

Like Oh So Sharp he found his first Classic hard work, but by the line he had a neck in hand of French Fifteen.

At Epsom the margin over runner-up Main Edition was a smooth five lengths. The Irish Derby was routine – now for the Leger.

The excitement in the build-up to Doncaster was palpable. I was fortunate to attend a media visit to Ballydoyle. As you sweep in, standing by the main gates, is a statue of Nijinsky. The space for the Camelot sculpture was in place opposite him.

That’s what we’re talking about when we bring up the Triple Crown, you’re retracing the hoofprints of legends.

Camelot can't get past Encke in the Leger

As we know it wasn’t to be. Encke got first run on the favourite and try as he might, he couldn’t quite reel him in. I’ve never known an atmosphere at a racecourse fall so flat so soon. There was silence for the first minute or so after they crossed the line.

The post-race parties that were scheduled seemed more like wakes as most racegoers opted to head into town or home early.

Yet Camelot – and Oh So Sharp before him – offer the blueprint as to what the next horse to win all three Classics will be.

You want a colt with a middle-distance pedigree, who gets away with the mile trip at Newmarket through sheer class before showing their true colours a month later at Epsom.

Then Doncaster and it might not be pretty again, but that class, allied by the courage that will have been in evidence at Headquarters, can seal the deal.

It helps if you’re trained by a genius too.

Pinatubo - champion two-year-old of 2019

Charlie Appleby is definitely in the very good category at least at the moment but Pinatubo’s Triple Crown pretensions, even before the shortening of the domestic season, were open to question.

Hopefully we’ll have all three Classics at some stage in 2020 – and in the right order. But whether a colt who was precocious enough to win a Woodcote over six furlongs at Epsom in the May of his two-year-old career is still atop the tree and ready to run a mile and a furlong further at Doncaster in the September of his second season has to be open to question. He didn’t seem overly blessed with physical scope during the autumn either.

But then again he's hugely talented, in very good hands and by Shamardal out of a mare who has already produced a very good mile-and-a-half horse.

On paper at least that's a very good starting point and right now we have to dream the dream.

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Feedback from readers

George Goodenough: Nijinsky inspired the love of racing in my brother when he was 14. At his school there was a small but select group of racing enthusiasts. Kevin "Ashleigh Brook" Bishop was one of their number. This passion was passed on to my 4yo self and the first race I remember watching was Mill Reef's Derby the following year. My brother Roger was touring the states in 1992 and brazenly asked the stud in Kentucky if he could meet Nijinsky, his equine hero. They willingly obliged and a star struck brother actually got to pat the old boy on his neck. Two weeks later the death of Nijinsky was announced and Brough Scott wrote a fantastic obituary entitled "One Swallow That Made A Summer."

Nigel Beardsley: Interesting article. Yes, Camelot should have won the Triple Crown. Not least because I backed him to win it! I was at Doncaster that day and we watched how carefully he was saddled and he looked great in the paddock. The problem was not with the going, the trip or the horse. It was with the jockey I'm afraid. Probably the worst ride ever by Joseph O'Brien (and he knew it). He kept him to the inside all the way round and was always going to be short of racing room. Got to say, even before they made the final turn with about 6 furlongs to go, I saw the sad writing on the wall. Don't forget, this was not long after Joseph had replaced Johnny Murtagh as stable jockey and as popular as Johhny was among other jockeys, Joseph was quite the opposite. There was no way any of the no hopers would make way for the bosses son in the way that they may have done for Johnny. So whilst I have huge respect for what Joseph has achieved as jockey and trainer, I still regard his ride of Camelot as his worst ever.

Andrew Pelis: I am inclined to agree with David that the Triple Crown's allure has been somewhat diluted.

Given the increased number of international Group One races on offer and the fact that the Group One power seems to lie in the hands of a select group of owners and trainers who prioritise the creation of stallions all too often, the Triple Crown races, in particular the Leger, has lessened in pulling power, I fear.

For me, the Guineas is the hardest leg to win. Oh So Sharp scraped home in hers - it comes so early in the year, against precocious types - and a Triple Crown winner should have stamina and class - making the race against speedsters and specialist milers, with little margin for tactical error, a huge challenge that early on in the year.

The Derby and Leger are longer races, giving a jockey longer to sort out tactics. Class should be enough to see them home.

I remember some extra coverage of Oh So Sharp's bid at the time but this was not sensational news and one of the greatest ever stories that I can recall. I would say that Pebble's Breeders' Cup triumph and Dancing Brave's Arc victory the following year received as many plaudits.

And the only horse since Oh So Sharp to make it to the third leg is Camelot and his Leger felt as though it was almost stage-managed, with the field falling apart. But he was unable to convert.

Nashwan, Sea The Stars, Midway Lady, Salsabil, Kazzia and Minding all won the first two legs but did not contest the Leger.

So, taking into account injuries and other targets, just one horse out of seven who could have attempted it since 1985, ran in the final leg.

That tells me there are more valuable prizes elsewhere and that breeders are focussed on shorter distance Group One success. That is the sign of the times. An Irish Champion Stakes victory maybe looks more attractive on a cv.

However, the mystique around a Triple Crown winning stallion would surely override any stigmas? I would love to see it happen.

I believe that if we are racing by July, that we might lose the Guineas races. I think that by then, we are playing catch up with the all-age mile championship races and I struggle to see how a three year-old mile campaign can fit in the Guineas, Irish Guineas and St James's Palace Stakes, with the Sussex Stakes and Prix Jacques Le Marois taking place in July and August.

Plus the dynamics of the Guineas are altered. A May Guineas attracts precocious juveniles from the previous year, non-stayers, milers and middle distance horses all in the mix. It helps establish who goes where for the rest of the season.

By July, the early to hand horses have lost out, there are later maturing types and if trainers know their horses' strengths, they will run in races accordingly. If you have a sprinter in July, you aren't going to suddenly run it over a mile and ruin the rest of the year.

With the Derby and Oaks, Epsom winners will still have a choice of middle distance races to the end of the campaign. There are more middle distance options as the year progresses. So a delayed Derby and Oaks would work. I just don't see it for the Guineas however, because of the way the big mile races play out later in the season (The SJP and Coronation Stakes in June, I believe are the last Group One races of the year, over a mile and exclusive to 3yos).

Two of the main benefactors of a delayed season could be York and Doncaster. It would be brilliant to see the St Leger's status heightened and if there was a late Derby, it would be easy to see horses going on to Doncaster from Epsom.

So I don't see a Triple Crown winner in 2020.

Dave Chapman: Nijinsky was Oh So Special (as indeed was Oh So Sharp) both trained by titans of the sport, at a time when the Triple Crown meant a lot more to the racing public than it seems to now, in fact Nijinskys feat was so well thought of that I sometimes think he was elevated to a higher perch than maybe he deserved. He was without doubt a great great horse but the two that followed him only 1 yr later to my mind were both better horses Brigadier Gerrard and Mill Reef – infact for me (and its only an opinion) the latter was the best horse I have ever seen until the wonderful Frankel turned up, and yes I know the Mercer ridden horse beat Mill Reef but Mill Reef won over a raft of distances on all kinds of ground. For me Mill Reef would of easily won the Triple Crown but his owner decided to go down a different route.

Going back to the Triple Crown though as for Pinatubo its a no from me -he just doesn’t strike me as a stayer, in fact I would be surprised if he even won the Derby never mind the Ledger, if he were to win a Derby I am not even sure that his owner would even think about an entry for the race because as I said earlier I don’t feel the Triple Crown is as big a thing today as it used to be.

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