Justify on Saturday will try to make history, joining the exclusive club of three-year-old thoroughbreds to win the Triple Crown of horse racing. Should Justify win the Belmont Stakes, he will become just the second Triple Crown winner in the last 40 years, joining American Pharoah from 2015.
What are some other Triple Crowns in sports?
Can Justify on Saturday join a club that includes Miguel Cabrera, Martina Navratilova and Lee Trevino, among others?
But there are other Triple Crowns, too.
The most famous other Triple Crown is in baseball, for hitters who led their league in batting average, home runs and RBI. Modern analytics and statistical advancements have removed some of the sheen from batting average and RBI, though leading all three categories is still an incredible accomplishment. Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers won the Triple Crown in 2012, the first in the majors in 45 years. There hasn’t been a Triple Crown in the National League since Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals way back in 1937.
Baseball also has a pitching Triple Crown, which doesn’t carry as much fanfare but is still quite a feat, for pitchers who lead their league in ERA, wins and strikeouts. This last happened in 2011 when Clayton Kershaw turned the trick in the National League and Justin Verlander did so in the American League.
Max Scherzer enters Saturday at 10-1 with a 1.95 ERA and 133 strikeouts, leading the NL in wins and strikeouts and second in ERA, threatening a pitching Triple Crown this season.
A lesser known Triple Crown is in tennis, reserved for those who in grand slam tournaments win in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. That’s almost non-stop tennis for two straight weeks, and it just doesn’t happen too much anymore. The last tennis Triple Crown winner was the great Martina Navratilova, who hoisted three different trophies at the 1987 U.S. Open.
There is an even more obscure Triple Crown in golf, which like tennis is more known for it’s grand slam of four major tournaments. But the Triple Crown on the links consists of winning the U.S. Open, the Canadian Open and the British Open in the same year. It has only happened twice — Lee Trevino and 1971 and Tiger Woods in 2000.
Trevino’s Triple Crown came in a 23-day span, but he was looking for something even bigger, as recalled by Adam Schupak at the Morning Read in 2017:
“I’ve got the U.S., the British, and the Canadian opens. But, darn it, I’ve got to wait all the way until October to win my own Grand Slam,” he said, with a smile. “That’s when the Mexican Open is.”
Should Justify win at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday he’ll be the 13th horse to win the Triple Crown, and join this eclectic group of other sports’ winners.
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