John Pricci

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The National Thoroughbred Racing Association does an excellent job disseminating information to turf writers. On matters of significant interest, they usually send racing media two e-mail alerts, one a just-in-case redundancy.

When four e-mails arrived simultaneously last week announcing that trainer Tim Ritchey would hold a national conference call, you knew the news was bad. Bad news travels fast, sometimes to the fourth power. For fans of the sport, and for fans of Afleet Alex, it was the worst news you could get about a race horse short of euthanasia. Retired, never to race again.

Avascular necrosis, likely the result of bruising sustained in the midst of his “Immaculate Recovery” at the top of the Pimlico stretch, was, in the end, the rival he couldn’t jump over or outrun. An abnormal wedge-shaped section of brittle bone, located at the bottom of the cannon bone, was shown abutting the original fracture line. The problem went virtually undetected. Had it been discovered sooner, the colt would have been retired months ago.

The condition that afflicted Afleet Alex is rare with condylar fractures, then Afleet Alex didn’t do ordinary things. He trained twice a day. His regimen made him so fit that he was able to sprint the length of the Belmont Park stretch at the end of a mile and a half Belmont Stakes. He made it look like the race started at the quarter-pole. And, of course, he can leap tall thoroughbreds in a single bound.

If indeed the Preakness bruise weakened the cannon bone ultimately resulting in a hairline fracture, it occurred only three weeks before that sprint down the straight of the Elmont strip and two weeks after a circuitous circuit of Churchill Downs in a wild west rodeo also known as the Kentucky Derby.

For the past three years following the Triple Crown and, I vowed, for every classics chase in perpetuity until they stop the madness, I wrote a tome suggesting that the Triple Crown be altered. Now, after the retirement of two Godot-waiting inspired winners of the Double Crown, it’s comforting to find more voices in the racing wilderness.

FREE VIDEO Afleet Alex wins May 21: Watch the Preakness Stakes as jockey Jeremy Rose and Afleet Alex avoid disaster to beat Scrappy T and Giacomo. NBC Sports

Following the Ritchey announcement, Bob Ford, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, Dick Jerardi, college hoop and thoroughbred-racing beat writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, and Ray Paulick, editor-in-chief of the influential Bloodhorse magazine, all suggested that something must be done about the grueling crucible known as the Triple Crown. Way beyond looking-at, time has come to act.

If one turf writer, even the great Charles Hatton, could invent the series, surely a handful of others could do their best to tweak it. If Hatton were alive to see what his favorite breed had become; horses bred for the sales ring and not the racetrack, two decades of permitted medication coursing through their sires, the harder, faster surfaces over which horses run, Hatton also might see the need for more humanity and patient horsemanship. Add pollution, increased travel and a year-round season and is it any wonder today’s racehorse is not your father’s thoroughbred?

Today’s best horsemen have an understanding of the interrelationship of form cycle analysis to physical development and, accordingly, race their stock less often. Even the less successful ones give their horses more time between starts.

Everyone has an idea about how change should come. Here, for the fourth time in three years, is mine. In the context of the modern game, it’s the best way I know to do what’s best for the horse and the sport without diminishing the degree of difficulty, thereby preserving racing’s traditions and its famous athletes.

No other series of racing events demands more of its athletes than the Triple Crown and none at a time when they are still in a critical period of physical development. Long after the Belmont has been run, the growth cycles continue. If racing really means what it says about its struggle to gain mainstream acceptance, it needs to give the appearance of dealing with animals more humanely.

Slide show   Images of the Triple Crown See images from the 2005 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

A longer Triple Crown series would be in the sport’s best interests. By lengthening its duration from five weeks to nine, the event would be less stressful on the participants. In fact, a series of longer duration could make the quest more difficult. More Derby horses would run back in the Preakness; more Derby and Preakness horses would run back in the Belmont. The same horses that lay in the weeds in Baltimore and New York would still be there waiting, getting stronger for the challenge ahead.

The Triple Crown distances, and their venues, should remain the same. So should the date of the Kentucky Derby. The Derby is America’s Race and America’s Race is always run on the first Saturday in May.

Run the Preakness on the first Saturday of June, four weeks after the Derby. Twenty eight days is not a lot of recovery time following the hardest race in a horse’s career. But it’s 100 percent more than 14. The added time gives the race a stronger identity, able to stand more independently and not just existing as a stopover between Louisville and New York. Horses that did not qualify on graded earnings for the Derby would have more time and opportunity to find a suitable prep. The addition of more quality opponents in the Preakness makes the Triple Crown task of the Derby horse more difficult despite the added recovery time.

The Belmont Stakes should be run on the Fourth of July, five weeks after the Preakness. More added time is needed to deal with the stress of two demanding tests, and to prepare for a distance even more anachronistic than the Crown itself. Doesn’t it seem like the best breeders have all they can handle producing the great American nine-furlong racehorse?

Besides, what’s more All American on Independence Day, sometime between the barbecue and the fireworks, than to watch a racehorse try to make history? And if there were no such animal to attempt a sweep, or two seeking to win the Derby-Preakness rubber match, wouldn’t the Belmont and racing benefit from four more weeks of publicist drum banging?

Slide show Year in Pictures 2009 - Sports Experience an audio slide show of the best sports and news images from around the world and close to home.

Stretching the series over a longer duration at once makes the challenge to horse and trainer more difficult yet physically easier on the animal. And wouldn’t the accomplishment be that much sweeter if the Derby and/or Preakness winner had to defeat a greater number of late developing rivals?

This schedule upsets none of the traditional Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes preps. All it does is allow more time between starts. Further, there wouldn’t be a need to adjust the schedule of lesser Derbies, or the Grade 1 Haskell and Travers.

In sum, a longer Triple Crown season would simultaneously increase and decrease the degree of difficulty, brighten the spotlight, create and sustain added interest, produce bigger and better wagering events, all the while doing what’s best for the horse. Time has come for enlightened self interest to help racing’s equine stars which, in words once uttered by trainer Ron McAnally, “give their lives for our pleasure?”

MORE FROM HORSE RACING

NYRA urges tough penalties on horse slaughter

NYRA urges tough penalties on horse slaughter Horse races to return to Fla.'s historic Hialeah Churchill Downs doubles its night racing Perfect Zenyatta (14-0) awaits breeding career Racing's Year of the Girl Zenyatta beats the boys in Breeders’ Cup Classic   Video: Filly Rachel Alexandra wins Preakness thriller   Video: Watch replay of Mine That Bird's victory Interactive: Triple Crown winners, near misses Vote: When will we see next Triple Crown winner?   Add Horse racing headlines to your news reader: