I see the National Series as the true Triple Tiara (I like matching each Triple Crown race with a Tiara race), although mine is Kentucky Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan, and the Alabama (10f). I usually run my fillies at in a Oaks prep, Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan, Acorn, Mother Goose, CC American Oaks, then the Alabama to finish the summer. If they are really good I may swap one with the Woodward (pull a Rachel Alexandra). I usually finish the year with either the Cotillion or the Beldame and then the BC Distaff. Here is just one of my many amazing fillies that pulled of a Triple (or Sextuple Tiara lol).



She eventually went on to win two Dubai Duty Free and two Dubai World Cups as well as two more BC Distaffs, a BC Classic, and four Japan Cup Dirts. She finished her career with a perfect 60 for 60 record and over $37 million in earnings. She is by far my best horse.

Also, just so you know, the new NY Triple Tiara is the Acorn, CC American Oaks, and Alabama. This was changed in 2010.

Honestly, the reason why the Black-Eyed Susan is rarely ever seen as a Triple Tiara quality race is it being a Grade Two and a purse of $250,000 as of this year. Pimlico tried to make it back to being a Grade One in 2013 and 2014 by raising the purse to $500,000 but the quality of horses wasn't there. The last horse to sweep the Oaks and Black-Eyed Susan was Silverbulletday.
Two races that really lost their shine are the Molly Pitcher and the Monmouth Oaks. I may be biased with Monmouth Park being my home track, but they are both great races for fillies and mares. I feel bad for Monmouth as the only races that get noticed are the United Nation and the Haskell, and even then, outside of Bob Baffert and the Breeders Cup even care about the Haskell.

Years ago, I proposed on my blog three race challenges like the Triple Crown/Tiara but or different runners.
Sprint Challenge: CD Spint, Maryland Sprint, Woody Stephens
Marathon Challenge: Louisville Hdcp, Brooklyn Hdcp, United Nations
Turf Challenge Early: American Turf, Dixie, Manhattan
Older Challenge (Male): Alysheba, Pimlico Special, Met Mile
Older Challenge (FM): La Troienne, Gallorette, Ogden Phipps

Of course now that their are new races like the Belmont Derby/Oaks, Gold Cup, and a few others, I think I would need to rethink these, but the goal was to make Derby, Preakness, and Belmont weekends mean something more than just the Triple Crown and Triple Tiara.

Right now I'm getting all of the feature races for Kranji and I like what they do. They have series of races that they call challenges. It is a splendid idea and I like how they do it. Here is their list of feature races for you to see what I mean: http://www.turfclub.com.sg/Racing/RacingCalendarAndFixtures/Pages/FeatureRaces.aspx

I tried making a Fictional Schedule using everyone's best horses as the names for the races (so like Mjtags11's Free Why Stakes) and i had a poll that asked where people would like the year end championship to be and 1st place was Lingfield (dirt and turf course), with Meydan and Tokyo behind. I want to make a course using Keeneland as a base (since I just love that course layout), and add bleachers that go all the way around (kinda like when Lone Star Park hosted the Breeders Cup) and put it under the lights, add an actual winning post (like Ascot or Flemington or Randwick and most other international courses), and make the course look like a championship caliber course and host a 5 day championship meet. One day... one day...

If you ever want a good straight courses (I assume with both turf and dirt), I could make you one using the editor. Just specify how long you want it, how you want the grandstand, and any other details you'd like (like environment, surroundings, etc.).

Oh definitely. The Cotillion is one of the major fillies races (my family did jackets for one of the owners of Princess of Sylmar and said that the Cotillion was always a goal and was supposed to be their year end championship, not the Beldame, or Distaff... they never wanted to send her to the Distaff... that race really took her down a peg and I look at the BC Distaff to Princess of Sylmar as I look at the Woodward for Rachel Alexandra... a race that changed their careers for the worse). I think the PA Derby should have been upgraded to a Grade One, and could be in a few years. One race that I hope is upgraded is the Mountainview Handicap at Penn National. It was ran with a Grade Three possibly Grade Two field, with East Hall, Albano, and Kid Cruz. I also think that the Super Derby is an underrated race, as well as the Charles Town races outside of the CT Classic. I could find about 20 races that deserve to be graded but aren't... Then again, some of the best races aren't graded high, like how the Aintree Grand National is only a Grade Three.... weird.

And I was hoping Bayern would have been taken down since I had Toast of New York... but the stewards weren't going to take down a horse on national tv, not after NBC started to basically wrap up their coverage with Bayern as the winner. I hate NBC's coverage of races. It just seems like they only care about ratings. I love how Fox Sports The Jockey Club does their coverage. The coverage of the Dubai World Cup was brilliant!

Edit: When Alpha and Golden Ticket (i think) dead heated for the Travers win, NBC barely had coverage, not even HD cameras... although ESPN/ABC did an even worse job of the Haskell...

Tara Lipinski I can somewhat stand... Johnny Weir... Hell no. His hat this year was awful... And if I heard one more "Razzle Dazzle Tom" I was going to fly to Churchill Downs just to have a horse bite his head off... And California Chrome bit Johnny too. If Dortmund won the Derby I would have started betting whichever horse bites Johnny Weir... Good thing we won't see them til the Breeders Cup... Bad thing is that they will be there most likely...
One funny thing was that Kenny Peck (I think) tweeted about how much he hated Johnny and Tara and the fashion coverage and I tweeted at his "could be worse, could have Johnny as the lead handicapper and Mike Battaglia as the fashion expert" and Kenny tweeted back "might like that more"...

Donna Brothers honestly does the best job out of all of them cause not only does she know how to get an interview, she knows the sport inside and out and is very professional. What she did for Kerwin Clark was great, and I would love for more success for him... maybe a BC Distaff win. That would take the cake. I feel bad for most riders who aren't from NYRA or So-Cal, no national recognition. I love the Louisiana and Kentucky riders more than most circuits. Gerard Melancon has won plenty of races for me. But sadly not national recognition. Thats why I loved that Jon Court won the Venezia trophy (which is voted on by jockeys). Such a great achievement. I feel as if Fox Sports would have done a more professional job, and imagine if DRF had a tv channel... wow. That would be a broadcast to watch.

Exactly. I've always liked Clark and watched his first Graded Stakes win at Keeneland on TVG and then thought nothing of it until I saw him cross the finish line first in the Kentucky Oaks. Even I shed a tear.
And Equibase does so much for the industry and the virtual stable is basically the best. I love the limitless amounts of race charts that aid in my handicapping, mainly cause the more numbers I have the better. Too bad Equibase doesn't have the harness side as well, Harness racing needs an Equibase. As does QH racing, although equibase has that covered kinda.

And their stakes history pages really help to make stat sheets for the stakes races, with past information and what not. Really helps for my blog when I need to get past data, like how the exotics payouts for this years Derby were the lowest in recorded history (whenever Equibase started posting exotics in the race charts).

I am working on a fictional schedule where I have 1400 races (G1,G2,G3,L) just of US (didn't want international in this schedule so to make sure every race has good sized fields. It took forever to name all the races (16 races called the Champions Cup ____, and Kentucky Derby, KY Oaks, Preakness, and Belmont names carry over). Honestly, its tough. Most of my names are of the greatests horses in history as well as landmarks around the track, like the Route 9 Cup at Charles Town. Tough, but rewarding once it is done... although mine isn't done yet so I hope its rewarding lol.

Hey mj in your fictional schedule what do your derby preps look like thanks

I have like 10 Derby Preps that are directly tied to the Derby. They are mostly 9 furlongs on dirt (although a few are 8.5f). While there is a Santa Anita, Aqueduct, and Gulfstream Park, other tracks like Lone Star, Monmouth, and a few other tracks without real preps get them. They are all late March/Early April. Each track also has two designated preps for each of their main prep (like Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth are for Florida Derby) which each are prepped to the main prep. The Preakness preps are the Derby, a Pimlico 3yo dirt 8.5f race, and most 3yo only races in between the last Derby prep and he Derby. The Belmont preps are the Derby, Preakness, a Belmont 3yo race, and some 3yo races that happen after the Derby but before the Preakness.
My Triple Tiara (Kentucky Oaks, Maryland Oaks, and Belmont Oaks - the last is a dirt race at 10.5f) go on the same basis of preps, just the filly counterpart (so Texas Oaks instead of Texas Derby).

I think the preps are much better in this game, u have to be around 120 or better to run in the breeders cup classic in my game. I don't have that many grade 1's as well.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10097

You are welcome to use what I compiled here. All of the races are names that people submitted of their horses (and some real-life legends I think). I doubt I'll ever finish it so maybe you can put it to good use.