After a record breaking Kentucky Derby last weekend, the horse racing world was rocked by the bombshell of a cancelled Preakness.
The second leg of the Triple Crown won’t happen as the horses signed union cards on Monday and immediately went on strike for better work conditions. While Golden Tempo, winner of the Derby, was not part of the organizing committee, he did elect to drop out of the Preakness, thus extending the American Triple Crown drought to nine years.
“Who created the value in Louisville over the weekend? Why were people there?” Derby participant Incredibolt said on Sunday. “There is no Derby, no triple crown, no racing industry without the thoroughbreds and it is time we got conditions and wages fitting of the value we create.”
After one of the most watched Derbys in history, the racing world has been in a panic trying to figure out what to do next.
“This whole thing is preposterous, a sham. The fact that horses, which cannot trade currency, are holding out for higher cuts of revenue is absurd,” the CEO of Churchill Downs Inc, William Carstanjen said. “Straw and hay will suffice as it’s had for centuries.”
Carstanjen’s group just purchased the intellectual property rights for the Preakness last month and sources to BGS have said there is tangible fear should this stalemate make it to next weekend.
Churchill Downs Inc’s stock was down nearly 12 percent from its Friday close on the back of the blockbuster equine announcement.
“I’m sure people will still show up to Pimlico in a few weeks in the seersucker and dumb hats without us sprinting for their amusement, “Derby third place Ocelli said. “We want standardized training hours, better cushioning in the stables, organic hay, and 45% of all track revenue. It’s a reasonable request.”
BGS reached out to Ashford Stud, current farm home for Justify. The winner of the Triple Crown in 2018 did not directly respond for comment but did release a statement through Ashford:
Winning the Triple Crown was the greatest moment of my life. Coming home first on Big Sandy was a memory I’ll cherish forever. And I very much want the horses of today, some of which are my great grandchildren to reach the same mountaintop, but I would be remiss if I could agree with the methods being undertaken by the current crop of thoroughbreds. Those stables, those tracks were good enough for me to cut my teeth and be victorious, and I think any horse worth its salt would be able to do the same today. God Bless.
The Preakness was scheduled to be run May 16 at Pimlico in Baltimore.
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