Triple Crown Productions

Triple Crown Productions is an ad hoc production company that produced the series of Triple Crown races for thoroughbred horses.

In 1985, a group of people wanted to increase the stature of the Triple Crown on television. Other than the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes were considered the two "other" races. ABC Sports, which had broadcast the Derby since 1975, wanted to televise all the races as a three race package. CBS Sports, which showed the other two races, had much lower ratings for them, with the possible exceptions of years in which the Crown was at stake like 1973, 1977, and 1978.

In 1977, ABC was awarded the contract to televise the Preakness. TCP was formed in 1985 after CBS terminated its contract with NYRA. ABC Sports won the rights to broadcast all three races, as well as many prep races. Ratings went up after the package was centralized.

Triple Crown Publications was charged with marketing the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes as a single entity. Incorporated in September 1985, Triple Crown Productions opened its offices at Churchill Downs in January 1986 and inaugurated a common nomination form and fees for all three races. Early nominations were set at a fee of $600 for each horse nominated at the closing of mid-January and late nominations for $3,000 (now $6,000) closing six weeks prior to the Derby. Supplemental entries were also set at $150,000 for the Derby and $100,000 for the Preakness and Belmont if nominating a horse after the second nomination close.

In 1986 Triple Crown Productions in an effort to get more publicity for the three race series sought a sponsor. The very next year, beginning in 1987, Chrysler Motors agreed to offer a three tiered bonus called the "Chrysler Triple Crown Challenge" and a "Triple Crown Bonus." The first two phases of the bonus would have two distinct payouts to the owners of horses running in the Triple Crown series.

The first part of the bonus would be paid out to any horse that could sweep all three legs of the Triple Crown. That bonus brought the combined purse winnings of all three race purses and the extra series bonus to equal $5,000,000 to the winner along with the special Triple Crown Trophy commissioned by the Thoroughbred Racing Association. A second phase of the bonus was to be paid out as a flat $1,000,000 to any horse that started and finished in all three races and had the highest combined total finish. The requirement to "finish all three races" affected the 1993 result, as Sea Hero was declared the winner in 1993 despite Prairie Bayou ending up with more points, as Prairie Bayou broke down during the Belmont Stakes and failed to finish.

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