Showing results for "Triple" in United States

It is not difficult to drive through Laurel, Maryland, and never know that it was once the site of races where thundering thoroughbreds ran at top speeds in search of victory. In fact, thousands of people do each day, on their way from Baltimore to Washington, DC, or vice versa. But there was a time, not that long ago, when champions ran at the now largely disused Laurel Race Course, when four-footed athletes raced for a prize that would go not to themselves but to their two-footed owners.

The story of one of racing's earliest dynasties, the historic Belair Stud, began with William Woodward's childhood memories of grand days at the racetrack, inspiring dreams of breeding a champion or two of his own. Woodward turned those dreams into reality, building Belair Stud on his family's Maryland estate, launching what would become the preeminent thoroughbred breeding and racing empire in America and chasing racing's biggest prizes in both the United States and England.

High Chief Nanaula discovered Hawai'i in the sixth century. As King Kalākaua recounts it, the chief's expedition brought the first settlers to the island chain from either the Samoan or Society Islands. Five hundred years later, Hawaiian chiefs Moikeha, Olopana, and Laa-Mai-Kahiki—deep sea voyagers from the House of Nanaula—would renew ties with Tahiti and Samoa amidst a second migration from the south. Equipped with little more than barges and canoes, the Polynesians of yesteryear carved out their place in history on the planet's largest ocean.

In more than a century of American Thoroughbred racing, only 13 horses have won the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, all won in the same season). Veteran turf writer and racing historian Edward L. Bowen takes us through the rich history of one of the most formidable and exciting challenges in all of sport. Bowen covers the trainers, owners, and jockeys who etched their names into the annals of thoroughbred racing, and the “lucky 13” who captured all three jewels of the Triple Crown, racing’s most prestigious prize.