Supplementary Derby Entries to Be Allowed

The Kentucky Derby was opened to supplementary entries as a result of adjustments made in the Triple Crown conditions announced Thursday.

In an attempt to address criticism of the Triple Crown, particularly the point system for two rich bonuses, the operators of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes made several changes.

The biggest will permit supplementary nominations at entry time, two days before the Derby. Supplementary nominations have not been allowed in the Derby in modern times.

Under the new rules, to bypass a January or April nomination deadline, an owner would have to pay $150,000 to get his horse eligible on the day entries are drawn.

The $150,000, which would go into the Derby purse, also would make the horse eligible for the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. If an owner waited until the Preakness to supplement, he would have to pay only $100,000, which also would open the Belmont to him.

A supplementary entry to the Belmont will cost $50,000.

Horses had been supplemented for years to the Preakness and Belmont, but that provision was dropped starting with the 1986 Triple Crown, when the three races were joined for nomination purposes.

“After review and analysis of the nomination procedures, and discussions with horsemen and the media, we felt the extension of the late nomination deadline and allowing supplements give horsemen every possible chance to be in the Triple Crown races,” said Ed Seigenfeld, executive director of Triple Crown Productions.

The Derby’s prohibition of supplemental entries may have had one of its biggest impacts in 1980. That year, Codex won the Santa Anita Derby but was not nominated for the Kentucky Derby and had to skip the race. Codex had been nominated for the Preakness and won at Pimlico Race Course. He also had been nominated for the Belmont Stakes, in which he ran seventh.

Also, the Triple Crown’s point system--involving a $1 million bonus for the best performance in all three races--has been altered.

Points had been awarded on a 5-3-1 basis. The new scoring will be based on a 10-5-3-1 system.

“Under the new system, a horse that wins two races has to finish in a tie for the bonus,” Seigenfeld said. “Under the new system, Alysheba would have gotten the $1 million.”

Unchanged is the $5-million Chrysler Triple Crown Challenge, which guarantees that amount to any horse winning all three races. The guarantee amounts to a bonus of about $2.5 million because the $1 million bonus and the three purses would be deducted before the payoff is made.