Starting in 1987, Winning the Triple Crown Will Be Worth $6.5 Million

The presenters of the Triple Crown, still stinging after losing Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck to the Jersey Derby in 1985, said Monday that they will take on their New Jersey rival in a battle of million-dollar purses.

Triple Crown Productions announced the “Triple Crown Challenge,” worth $5 million to the owner of any horse who sweeps the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

In 1985, Spend a Buck won the Kentucky Derby, but owner Dennis Diaz chose to skip the Preakness at Pimlico to race in the Jersey Derby at Garden State. Spend a Buck won the Jersey race and collected the inaugural $2-million bonus offered a horse who had also won the Cherry Hill Mile, the Garden State Stakes and the Kentucky Derby.

The Jersey Derby is held just nine days after the Preakness, so owners and trainers must choose between those races.

The combined winners’ purses for the Triple Crown totals about $1.5 million.

If there is no Triple Crown winner, a $1-million bonus will be given to the owner of the horse with the consistently best finishes in the series, to be determined by a system in which five points will be awarded to the winner of each race, three for second and one for third.