Grand Slam (horse racing)

The Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing in the United States consists of three races—the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Many sports have a group of four top events called the “Grand Slam.” On October 31, 2015, after Triple Crown winner American Pharoah had won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, it was declared that the horse was the first to win thoroughbred racing’s “Grand Slam.”
 
“How come they don’t acknowledge the Breeders Cup like they do the other 3 big races? Should really make it a Grand Slam thing” was cited on Twitter on October 29, 2014. The “Grand Slam” term went viral on June 6, 2015, after American Pharoah won the Belmont Stakes race to complete the Triple Crown. Breeders’ Cup wrote on Twitter, “Time to look ahead for the Grand Slam: #BC15, @amer_pharoah. The Best Is Yet To Come.” “It popped into our heads right after (the Belmont),” Breeders’ Cup President Craig Fravel said in June 2015 about the “Grand Slam” term.
 
   
Wikipedia: Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby /ˈdɜrbi/ is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles (2 km) at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57 kilograms) and fillies 121 pounds (55 kilograms).
 
The race is known in the United States as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports” or “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” for its approximate duration, and is also called “The Run for the Roses” for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown and is followed by the Preakness Stakes, then the Belmont Stakes.
 
Wikipedia: Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American flat thoroughbred horse race held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs (1 3⁄16 miles (1,900 m)) on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57 kg); fillies 121 lb (55 kg). It is the second leg of the Triple Crown, held two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Belmont Stakes.
 
Wikipedia: Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) horse race, open to three-year-old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds (57 kg); fillies carry 121 pounds (55 kg). The race, nicknamed The Test of the Champion and The Run for the Carnations, is the third and final leg of the Triple Crown and is held five weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks after the Preakness Stakes, on a Saturday between June 5 and June 11. The 1973 Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown winner Secretariat holds the mile and a half stakes record (which is also a track and world record on dirt) of 2:24.
 
Wikipedia: Breeders’ Cup Classic
The Breeders’ Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of 1 1⁄4 miles (2,000 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack as part of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. All of the races to date have been held in the United States except for the 1996 edition held at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada.
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Beginning in 2015, the Breeder’s Cup became part of what is being called horse racing’s Grand Slam - the traditional Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes) plus the Breeder’s Cup Classic. In 2015, American Pharoah became the first horse to ever accomplish this feat.
 
Twitter
7-0
@TommieCB
@GioPontiFan How come they don’t acknowledge the Breeders Cup like they do the other 3 big races? Should really make it a Grand Slam thing
7:50 PM - 29 Oct 2014
 
Twitter
Breeders’ Cup
@BreedersCup
Time to look ahead for the Grand Slam: #BC15, @amer_pharoah. The Best Is Yet To Come.
#TripleCrown
#AmericanPharoah
Embedded image permalink
6:10 PM - 6 Jun 2015
 
Twitter
Joe Quillen
@phillyguy73
So is it too early to talk Breeders’ Cup Classic and a grand slam? #AmercianPharoah
6:12 PM - 6 Jun 2015
   
Associated Press
Looking ahead to Breeders’ Cup Classic with American Pharoah
By RICHARD ROSENBLATT Jun. 26, 2015 12:00 AM EDT
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Then again, let’s.
 
The Breeders’ Cup is just about four months away, and if Triple Crown winner American Pharoah shows up for the $5 million Classic as planned, the race could turn into one of the biggest celebrations in the sport’s history.
 
Mark the date: Saturday, Oct. 31; and the place: Keeneland Racecourse, Lexington, Kentucky.
 
“I’m sitting here, knocking wood,” Breeders’ Cup President Craig Fravel said Thursday. “A lot of us in the industry are enjoying the triumph right now. Our first thought is let’s keep our fingers crossed, and that he’s in good form coming into the Classic.”
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It wasn’t long after American Pharoah blew away the field in the Belmont that the Breeders’ Cup began touting his try for a “Grand Slam’” in the Classic. And why not? It’s a term sports fans know well, from baseball to golf to tennis.
 
“It popped into our heads right after (the Belmont),” Fravel said. “We haven’t had a Triple Crown, so it’s not like we were waiting 10 years to whip out the term.”
   
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
Pharoah’s odds shorten for racing ‘Grand Slam’
onathan Lintner, @JonathanLintner 10:25 a.m. EDT August 6, 2015
That American Pharoah cruised in Sunday’s Haskell Invitational did nothing formal for his attempt at horse racing’s first “Grand Slam.”
 
Still, United Kingdom-based sports book William Hill shortened odds that the Triple Crown winner can complete a sweep of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic.
   
Twitter
katie
@uhalrightmaybe
@ThisKindaBrad @cooter696969 @drob768 I think they’re joking—Triple Crown + Breeders Cup = Grand Slam
2:42 PM - 11 Sep 2015
 
Twitter
Mike Adams
@GateToWire
The Grand Slam of racing does not exist. It’s a pure fabrication by the Breeders Cup. End of story.
1:19 PM - 25 Sep 2015
     
Boston (MA) Herald
American Pharoah wins Breeders Cup Classic, rides off into sunset
Wins Classic, retires
Ed Gray Sunday, November 01, 2015
LEXINGTON, Ky. — As the prized legs of a Triple Crown champion propelled American Pharoah away from his mere mortal rivals during a spectacular stretch run yesterday, an unmistakably partial crowd at Keene-land Race Course erupted in adulation.
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The first Triple Crown champion to have the opportunity to add a Breeders’ Cup Classic victory to his resume, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes winner completed a sweep of the racing’s newly coined “Grand Slam,” having pulled off wins in Thoroughbred racing’s four “majors.”