Last horse to win Triple Crown was Wando in ’03
“We moved to a Tuesday in an effort to modernize the event and bring out a larger crowd on our signature day,” Antonietta Culic, the track’s marketing and media relations manager said.
“There is also less competition in the simulcast market on a Tuesday night.”
In last year’s Prince of Wales, jockey Luis Contreras, back in the saddle despite suffering an injury in a spill at Woodbine two days earlier, rode 6-to-5 favourite Amis Gizmo to a victory by 5 1/2 lengths over 11-to-2 choice Leavem in Malibu in the showcase on dirt featuring the best three-year-old thoroughbreds foaled in Canada.
Sir Dudley Digges, the Queen’s Plate, finished sixth.
Wando was the last horse to race to the Canadian Triple Crown winning them in all in 2003. Wando was also the last horse to win the first two legs of the triple crown.
In the 13 years since, the series has featured 38 winners in as many races. The lone exception was in 2011 when Pender Harbour paced the pack in both the Prince of Wales and Breeders’ Stakes after Inglorious, a filly, finished first in the Queen’s Plate.
That was also the year that Contreras won the triple crown as a jockey.
He rode Inglorious in the Queen’s Plate before switching mounts and taking Pender Harbour to first-place finishes in the Prince of Wales and the Breeders’ Stakes.
Longest drought between triple crown winners is 26 years. After Canebora completed the sweep in 1963, the elite company of equines didn’t welcome another member until 1989 when With Approval was the fastest in all three jewels of the Triple Crown.
Not only did it rain after that long dry spell was broken, it poured: Izvestia won the Triple Crown the very next year, Dance Smartly in 1991 and Peteski in 1993.