Most people who follow horseracing know that the Kentucky Derby is the first of three major stakes races that make up the prestigious Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby is always run on the first Saturday in May. Two weeks after the Kentucky Derby comes the Preakness, followed by the Belmont three weeks later.

The Triple Crown came into being after two horses had already won it. The first was Sir Barton in 1919. When Gallant Fox won the three races in 1930, sportswriter Charles Hatton coined the term and it stuck.

Only eleven horses have ever won the Triple Crown, the last being Affirmed in 1978. It's worth mentioning that Seattle Slew captured the trio the year before, and Secretariat took the crown in commanding style in 1973. Many people still remember his record-shattering 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes.

Big Brown has an excellent shot at it this year. Everyone - even the competing horses' trainers - talk about how good Big Brown is. He just might be unbeatable.

There is a Triple Crown for three-year-old fillies, though the name was changed to the Triple Tiara. All three races were run at Belmont Park in New York during the Ruffian era: The Acorn Stakes, The Mother Goose Stakes, and The Coaching Club American Oaks. In 2003, the Triple Tiara races were reconfigured. The Acorn Stakes was dropped, leaving The Mother Goose Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks and adding the Alabama Stakes - which, despite the name, is run at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.

So far, only eight horses have won the Triple Tiara. Ruffian was the fourth in 1975. The last filly champion was Sky Beauty in 1993.

Incidentally, Secretariat was a son of Bold Ruler - the horse who was the grandsire of both Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure. Foolish Pleasure was the 1975 Kentucky Derby winner who squared off with Ruffian in a match race that ended in tragedy: Ruffian broke her leg and the brilliant filly had to be put down.

In nautical parlance, "Eight Bells" is the end of a four-hour watch. It's also a nautical euphemism for the death of a sailor: His watch is over, eternally. Eight Belles, the filly who broke down shortly after winning second place in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, was named after a home in Maine that belongs to the Wyeths, a family of American realist painters.

"We've been friends with the Wyeths for years, and I've named horses after his paintings because it's just something I do," owner Rick Porter said. "I was going to

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