The Triple Crown in Horse Racing: All 15 Winners and Why Nobody Can Do It Now

The St Leger Triple Crown — winning the 2000 Guineas, the Derby, and the St Leger in a single season — has not been achieved since 1970. That is more than half a century without a winner, in a sport where records are broken every year. The drought is not a coincidence, nor is it bad luck. It is the product of deliberate choices by trainers, owners, and an industry that has fundamentally changed its priorities since Nijinsky swept all three in Lester Piggott’s hands.

Fifteen horses have completed the Triple Crown since the St Leger was first run in 1776. Their stories span the entire arc of British flat racing, from Georgian wagers on open heathland to the globalised, commercially driven sport of the twenty-first century. This page lists all fifteen, explains why the achievement has become virtually impossible in the modern era, and examines the calendar and commercial pressures that keep the Crown out of reach.

The 15 Horses Who Completed the Crown

The complete list of Triple Crown winners tells its own story about how the sport evolved across two centuries.

The first Triple Crown winner was West Australian in 1853, though the concept of the “Triple Crown” as a formal achievement was not widely used until later. Before West Australian, the three races existed independently — trainers entered horses based on conditions and convenience rather than any ambition to sweep all three. West Australian changed that by proving it was possible, and suddenly the idea of a single horse dominating the Classic season had a name.

The Victorian era produced the majority of winners: Gladiateur in 1865 (the first French-bred to win all three, earning the nickname “The Avenger of Waterloo”), Lord Lyon in 1866, Ormonde in 1886, Common in 1891, Isinglass in 1893, Galtee More in 1897, and Flying Fox in 1899. Seven Triple Crown winners in the final half of the nineteenth century — a rate of roughly one every seven years. The races were closer together in the calendar, the pool of elite horses was smaller, and the economic incentives aligned: winning all three Classics was the pinnacle of an owner’s ambition.

The twentieth century started strongly. Diamond Jubilee won in 1900, Rock Sand in 1903, Pommern in 1915 (during wartime, when racing was restricted), Gay Crusader in 1917, and Gainsborough in 1918. After the First World War, the pace slowed. Bahram completed the Crown in 1935, and then nothing for thirty-five years until Nijinsky in 1970.

That gap — 1935 to 1970 — is revealing. It coincided with the professionalisation of training, the rise of owner-breeder syndicates, and the beginning of the trend towards specialisation that would eventually make the Triple Crown all but unwinnable. Nijinsky was the last horse good enough, versatile enough, and physically sound enough to win over a mile in May, a mile and a half in June, and a mile and six furlongs in September. No horse since has managed all three, and the closest attempt — Camelot in 2012, who won the Guineas and Derby but finished second in the St Leger — only reinforced how difficult the task has become.

The full roll of honour: West Australian (1853), Gladiateur (1865), Lord Lyon (1866), Ormonde (1886), Common (1891), Isinglass (1893), Galtee More (1897), Flying Fox (1899), Diamond Jubilee (1900), Rock Sand (1903), Pommern (1915), Gay Crusader (1917), Gainsborough (1918), Bahram (1935), and Nijinsky (1970). Fifteen names in 250 years — an average of one every sixteen and a half years, though the gaps have grown progressively longer as the sport has changed.

Calendar, Commerce, and the Arc: Why It’s Nearly Impossible

The practical reason the Triple Crown is nearly impossible in 2026 is not physical — it is commercial. The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, run at Longchamp in early October, has become the race that trainers target after the Derby instead of the St Leger. The Arc offers a bigger purse, a more international field, and — crucially — more valuable breeding rights for the winner.

The St Leger’s total prize fund stood at £700,000 in 2025, with the winner collecting £396,970. The Arc’s purse is roughly five times that. For an owner deciding where to send a dual Classic winner in September, the financial calculus is straightforward. The St Leger would complete a historic treble; the Arc would generate tens of millions in stallion value. Modern racing is a breeding industry first and a betting sport second, and the breeding industry rewards Arc winners far more generously than St Leger winners.

There is also the question of distance. The St Leger is run over a mile and six furlongs — two furlongs further than the Derby, and six furlongs further than the Guineas. A horse fast enough to win the Guineas over a mile is, by definition, bred for speed. Asking that same horse to stay an additional six furlongs four months later is asking it to be something it was not designed to be. Some can manage the Derby’s mile and a half. Very few have the genetic stamina reserves to cope with the Leger’s extra two furlongs on top of an already gruelling season.

The Arc, by contrast, is run at a mile and a half — the same distance as the Derby. It does not require the Guineas winner to stay further than it already has. It merely requires it to remain fit, healthy, and motivated across a long season. That is a difficult enough ask, but it is not the biological impossibility that the Leger’s distance demands.

The result is a structural barrier. The only way the Triple Crown returns is if a Derby winner’s connections deliberately choose the St Leger over the Arc — sacrificing commercial value for historical glory. In the current economic climate of flat racing, that decision becomes harder to justify with every passing year.

The Schedule Problem: Three Classics in Five Months

Even if a trainer were willing to bypass the Arc, the calendar itself works against the Triple Crown. The 2000 Guineas is run at Newmarket in early May. The Derby follows at Epsom in early June — a gap of roughly four weeks. The St Leger arrives at Doncaster in mid-September, a full three months later. That five-month span from first Classic to last demands sustained peak fitness from a three-year-old Thoroughbred, a category of horse that is still physically maturing.

The data supports the difficulty. Analysis from HorseRacing.guide shows that nine of the last twelve St Leger winners had raced within 65 days of the Leger. The Guineas-to-Leger gap is roughly 130 days — double the optimal window. A horse that runs in the Guineas in May and the Derby in June would need at least one preparatory race before the Leger in September, adding another competitive outing to an already demanding schedule. The cumulative physical toll — four or five hard races in five months — is more than most modern Thoroughbreds are asked to endure.

Contrast this with Nijinsky’s era. In 1970, training methods were less sophisticated, but horses were also campaigned more frequently and across a wider range of distances. The idea of running a horse five or six times in a season was unremarkable. Today, many top-class colts run three or four times in total, with each race carefully spaced and conditions meticulously managed. The very professionalism that has improved equine welfare has, paradoxically, made the Triple Crown harder to achieve.

Camelot’s defeat in 2012 illustrated the breaking point. After winning the Guineas and the Derby, he arrived at Doncaster as a prohibitive favourite. The market priced him at 2/5 — the shortest-priced runner in a St Leger for decades. He finished second, beaten three quarters of a length by 25/1 outsider Encke after being unable to obtain a clear run in the straight. The result confirmed what most trainers already suspected: the Triple Crown demands a type of horse that the modern breeding industry simply does not produce in sufficient numbers.

For punters, the Triple Crown’s near-impossibility has a practical implication. If a Guineas and Derby winner is ever entered in the St Leger again, the market will price it very short — just as it priced Camelot. The historical record suggests that the short price is not justified by the probability of success. Opposing a Triple Crown bid in the St Leger may be the most contrarian, and most statistically defensible, position available.