Despite Saddening End, Triple Crown Season Achieves a New $502,100,000 Record

The Belmont Stakes took place a few days ago at the namesake park in New York like it does every year. This year, though, saw a few tragic situations play out as the contest came to an end. It pulled the curtains on yet another year of American Triple Crown Racing, which was more successful than last year. What started off with Kentucky Derby, moved on to Preakness Stakes, and finally concluded with the Belmont Stakes on June 10. It was a good season for equestrians and their thoroughbreds financially and they put up a good show altogether. Yet the death of two horses sort of dampened the mood.

The 3-day racing event in Belmont Park went on from June 8-10. As it was coming to an end, 2 horses, namely Mashnee Girl and Excursionniste, were put down owing to their leg injuries. The overall American Triple Crown events, however, still made a profit from last time.

A successful season of equestrianism completes, but the price was too heavy

A tweet by Churchill Downs PR went, “Hats off to horseplayers and sports fans nationwide. A record $502.1 million was wagered on the three Triple Crown programs, up 6.9% from last year’s previous mark of $469,7 million”. Churchill Downs is where the Kentucky Derby i.e. first of the Triple Crown events begin, and the outpour of love from equestrian fans started from there.

Going on to list each revenue from each Triple Crown event, the tweet further went, “$282.5 million @KentuckyDerby.$101.3 million
@PreaknessStakes. $118.3 million @BelmontStakes”. Also attached was the logo of the American Triple Crown with a purple and brown border. It was not a surprise that the Kentucky Derby, one of the biggest and oldest events, generated more revenue than the rest.

Mage won the Kentucky Derby, National Treasure won the Preakness Stakes, and Arcangelo the Belmont Stakes. However, amidst all this glory, several horses also lost their lives, most of whom were euthanized due to severe injuries. Mashnee Girl and Excursionniste are just the two latest names on the list.

The number of dying horses is constantly on the rise

It happened over one weekend at Belmont Park, right after the horseracing event was over. Both the horses suffered near-fatal leg injuries at the inner and main turf courses. It eventually became fatal as their recovery wasn’t possible and they were euthanized to prevent the extension of their struggle. Mark Hennig, the trainer of both the horses, is devastated, and yet, he is under the scanner for this outcome. The increased scrutiny is also a result of what went down before the final event of the Triple Crown. As many as 12 horses died in Churchill Downs ahead of the Kentucky Derby, with two on the racing day. Sports fans even called for a ban on horse riding post that.

READ MORE – Despite Her Legs Barely Coming Past the Saddle Flaps, 9-Year-Old Equestrian Achieves ‘Every Child’s Dream’

While the sport might be alive and well, thriving due to the jockeys and their passion for it, the increasingly mounting deaths of horses put a dampener on it. It is a clear case of opposites where the racing events are doing so well financially and yet at a very high cost to animal life.

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