CDI, NYRA announce 3-year-old race series
Preakness, Haskell, PA Derby excluded
Frank Vespe
August 3, 2026
Monday’s announcement by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) and the New York Racing Association (NYRA) that the companies would collaborate in a season-long “Thoroughbred Championship Series” for three-year-olds is light on details but heavy on ominous implications for excluded races.
The series will begin in 2027, the announcement said.
The series is a somewhat odd amalgam of three classic races – the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Travers Stakes – two distinctly second-tier races in the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs and Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga, and a sixth race that does not currently exist. That last will be the championship.
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Under the announced plan, the races will take place in early May, early June, early July, late July/early August, late August, and late September.
“The Thoroughbred Championship Series will extend the excitement of the sport across a five-month season,” Bill Carstanjen, Chief Executive Officer of CDI, said in a statement. “The Kentucky Derby introduces millions of fans to a new generation of Thoroughbred stars each year, and this series gives those fans a reason to stay engaged with the sport’s biggest stars throughout the season.”
“Together with Churchill Downs and our television partners, we are building on tradition to carry the excitement of these marquee races through the entire season,” added NYRA president and CEO David O’Rourke.
The three races at Churchill Downs will air on NBC, and the three at the two NYRA tracks will air on Fox. There will be an as-yet undefined point system with a $5 million prize pool to the top point getters.
Beyond that, everything else is TBD.
“CDI and NYRA will work collaboratively on the series’ rules, nominations process, marketing, sponsorship, wagering opportunities and television distribution. Broadcast, sponsorship and commercial partnership details will be announced as agreements are finalized,” the statement said.
Several prominent Mid-Atlantic races, most notably the Preakness Stakes, are among those excluded from the announced series. In addition to the Preakness, two other regional Grade 1 events, the Haskell at Monmouth Park and the Pennsylvania Derby, are on the outside looking in.
A Maryland Jockey Club spokesperson declined to comment.
The series could sound a death knell for the Triple Crown. With the Preakness already reeling in recent years from a dearth of prominent Kentucky Derby horses, the series would in a sense formalize a month-by-month approach while putting dollars and marketing might behind it.
The announcement comes just days after the office of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced that the state had completed its purchase of the intellectual property rights to the Preakness Stakes. That $85 million deal came after Churchill had attempted to purchase those rights, prompting the state to exercise its right of first refusal.
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