all in Triple Crown

The Grade 3 Sham Stakes on Jan. 7 kicks off the 2017 Road to the Derby, not just the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on the first Saturday in May but also the Santa Anita Derby one month earlier.

When American Pharoah entered trainer Bob Baffert’s barn in the summer of 2014, he had already cultivated a reputation as a future superstar in his early training. But it’s unlikely anyone realized how big of a superstar he would become.

“The Japanese horse” they all called him, though he was born right here in the United States. Kentucky, even. A son of Tapit, our country’s top sire, which makes him related to many of the top American horses – including Creator, another gray horse in the Belmont Stakes. His maternal grandsire is Sunday Silence, the 1989 U.S. Horse of the Year.

There may not be a Triple Crown on the line June 11 at Belmont Park, but a budding rivalry between the top two 3-year-old colts in the country is probably the next-best option.

Throughout its history, the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes has been dominated by horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby. Over the last 30 years, only three horses that skipped the Derby have won the Preakness — and in each of those years, a Derby runner finished second.

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