Times Union13%
NYRA, Churchill Downs announce 6-race, $5 million Thoroughbred Championship Series for 3-year-olds 15%
By Adam Shinder0%
8/3/2026, 7:22:19 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Negativity Bias, and Pessimism Bias, with Self-Serving Bias as the most egregious example at 11.8% saturation with 159 hits. Analysis detected 1,112 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,349 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.8% and a BS Rank of 15% (24,176 of 28,359 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 85.20% of the article peer group.
With the pursuit of a Triple Crown increasingly fading into history, two major entities are teaming up to attempt to usher in a new era for horse racing’s famed 3-year-old division.
A new six-race series offering a $5 million bonus prize pool that’s designed to create an annual, seasonlong championship for top 3-year-olds will include both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, as well as two of Saratoga Race Course’s biggest events — but, pointedly, does not include the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.
The New York Racing Association and Churchill Downs Incorporated on Monday announced the formation of the Thoroughbred Championship Series, which is slated to begin in 2027.
The six-race series will be spread across three tracks, culminating with a championship race at Churchill Downs in September, while its summer focus will fall directly on Saratoga, with both the Jim Dandy and Travers stakes races included in the lineup.
The announcement was met with excitement, but also concern that the series will further jeopardize the future of the Triple Crown, which consists of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.
Only two horses have won the Triple Crown since 1978 and, more recently, the compact nature of the trilogy of races has resulted in multiple Kentucky Derby winners bypassing the Preakness.
With the absence of the Preakness from the Thoroughbred Championship Series, some fear Monday’s development could result in a greater likelihood of top horses skipping that race as their owners and trainers chase a piece of the $5 million prize pool.
Keep up with the latest happening in Saratoga Springs, Clifton Park, Ballston Spa and other communities in Saratoga County.
In a teleconference with reporters, NYRA President and CEO David O’Rourke attempted to allay those concerns.
“In no way at all,” O’Rourke said of the series’ impact on the Triple Crown.
“Basically, in terms of what we’re doing today, we’re announcing the beginning of it.
We wanted to set the foundation.
But, in no way does this touch the Triple Crown.”
The 2027 Thoroughbred Championship Series is slated to include the following races:
Kentucky Derby (May 1, Churchill Downs)
Belmont Stakes (June 5, Belmont Park)
Matt Winn Stakes (TBD July, Churchill Downs)
Jim Dandy Stakes (TBD late July/early August, Saratoga Race Course)
Travers Stakes (TBD late August, Saratoga Race Course)
Championship race (TBD September, Churchill Downs)
“The format,” O’Rourke said, “is built on standings, a seasonlong chase that develops real rivalries and brings a playoff atmosphere to racing, beginning on the first Saturday in May and continuing until the early fall.”
O’Rourke and Churchill Downs Inc.
CEO Bill Carstanjen briefly held a joint teleconference, which was cut off after opening statements and just one question from a reporter.
O’Rourke, alone, reconvened with reporters about 30 minutes later and said he believed “a technical snafu” caused the early end to the initial news conference.
In that first session, Carstanjen and O’Rourke both cited the goal of creating a seasonlong narrative and playoff format more familiar to fans of other sports as the driving force behind the series.
“Today’s fans experience sports differently than they did even a decade ago,” Carstanjen said.
“They want stories that unfold over time.
They want rivalries, standings and meaningful competition that builds from one event to the next.”
While the structure of the points system itself wasn’t announced, O’Rourke said the $5 million bonus pool would pay down to eighth place in the standings, and that a horse will have to run in at least four of the six races to qualify for the championship.
Carstanjen said that a horse does not have to “win any race, or even any particular race,” to finish atop the championship standings at season’s end.
Though purses have yet to be finalized, O’Rourke said it’s expected that each of the races in the series will carry at least a $1 million purse.
The current purses for the three races at NYRA tracks are $500,000 for the Jim Dandy, $1.25 million for the Travers and $2 million for the Belmont Stakes.
All six of the races will be broadcast on national TV.
The NYRA races will air on FOX, and the Churchill Downs races will be broadcast by NBC.
Bob Baffert — the only trainer since 1978 to win the Triple Crown; first, with American Pharoah in 2015, then Justify in 2018 — wrote in a post on X that he was “in favor” of the series, but it would not affect his decision to enter a horse in all three Triple Crown races.
“The Triple Crown has sustained our sport for more than 150 years,” he wrote, “and it will continue to do so for another 150 or more, if we appreciate it and care for it.
“The Preakness is integral to racing’s history, present, and future, and I hope nothing detracts from its significance.
If I have the right horse, I’ll continue to run in Baltimore every May, as well as in The Thoroughbred (Championship) Series.”
The series already has at least one fan in one of the horse racing’s most prominent and outspoken figures.
Mike Repole, owner of 2026 Kentucky Derby runner-up and recent Jim Dandy winner Renegade, wrote in a lengthy post on X following the announcement that the series, “can be a f[[HTML_SECTION]]amp;king game changer.”
In an interview with the Times Union, Repole said that while he didn’t think the series was “the magic bullet, the magic bean” to solve some of the issues plaguing the sport, he thinks the collaborative process between multiple racing entities and television partners is a strong blueprint for moving the sport forward.
“The biggest thing for me is the alignment, uniting and really collaborating together,” Repole said.
“That’s the big thing, is that as an industry, we have to collaborate and align.
It’s in the best interest of the sport as a whole, and not just as an individual.”
The Preakness is slated to return to Pimlico in Baltimore in 2027 after a one-year move to nearby Laurel Park for 2026 due to construction at the race’s traditional host site.
The Preakness is traditionally held two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, with the Belmont falling three weeks after, though Maryland racing officials are reportedly mulling a change that would move the Preakness to three weeks after the Derby.
Three of the last five Kentucky Derby winners — Rich Strike in 2022, Sovereignty in 2025 and Golden Tempo in 2026 — did not start in the Preakness two weeks after their wins at Churchill Downs, forsaking a chance at the Triple Crown.
Both Sovereignty and Golden Tempo used the time off to train up to an eventual Belmont Stakes win, both at Saratoga Race Course, which hosted the last three Belmonts as the race’s traditional home — Belmont Park — underwent major renovations ahead of reopening this September.
O’Rourke said the announcement by NYRA and Churchill Downs was made so the series could “have a foundation that we can actually now layer things on top of,” and that they would be “open to conversations” with other racing operators.
Whether that would include making a change to the Belmont Stakes’ spot on the calendar, if Maryland moves back the Preakness, remains to be seen.
“If anything else changes out there, of course, everyone’s going to have a discussion about what does that mean to our game,” O’Rourke said.
“I can’t really answer that.
Just making up a scenario at this point.”
Earlier this year, though, CDI had announced a deal to buy the intellectual property rights to the Preakness from 1/ST Maryland LLC.
The state of Maryland had a right to match the deal and did so this past Thursday, as the state finalized an $85 million deal to purchase the rights to the Preakness and Black Eyed Susan Stakes.
A Maryland Jockey Club spokesperson told the Times Union shortly after the series was announced that, “The Maryland Jockey Club has no comment at this time, as we just learned of the announcement.”
Speakers
8speakers52%attributed speech641writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageBob Baffert
129 attributed words18% of attributed speech44% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.