Every year the United Kingdom holds a series of Triple Crown events for three-year-olds and it is considered one of the nation’s most important and highly esteemed horse racing achievements to win the England Triple Crown. England was actually the first country to establish a Triple Crown when the term originated in 1853 with the horse West Australian winning the following three flat races.

The first leg in the English Triple Crown is the 2000 Guineas Stakes. Run over 1 mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk in late April or early May, the race is worth £400 000.

The second jewel in the Triple Crown is the Epsom Derby. This race takes place at Epsom Downs Racecourse and is run over 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards. Held in early June stakes are set at £1.25 million.

The third and final event of the England Triple Crown series is the St. Leger Stakes. The distance of this even is 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards and it is held at Town Moor in Doncaster, Yorkshire in September offering £500 000 in prize money.

The English Triple Crown has a rich and detailed history dating back over 150 years. In all this time there have only ever been fifteen horses to claim an English Triple Crown victory. The last winner was Nijinsky II who won in 1970 after a Triple Crown winning drought of 35 years. Since his win there have only been two horses to come close to success in this incredible event, winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown, Nashwan (1989) and Sea the Stars (2009). Both of these runners, however, chose not to contend in the St. Leger Stakes. In fact, there have been no Epsom Derby winners to enter the St. Leger Stakes since Reference Point in 1987.

England Triple Crown Winners:

Year	Winner	Jockeys	Trainer	Owner
1853	West Australian	Frank Butler	John Scott	John Bowes
1865	Gladiateur	Harry Grimshaw	T. Jennings, Sr.	Fr’d’ric de Lagrange
1866	Ormonde	Fred Archer	John Porter	Duke of Westminister
1891	Common	George Barrett	John Porter	Sir Frederick Johnstone
1893	Isinglass	Tommy Loates	James Jewitt	Harry McCalmont
1897	Galtee More	Charlie Wood	Sam Darling	John Gubbins
1899	Flying Fox	Morny Cannon	John Porter	Duke of Westminister
1900	Diamond Jubilee	Herbert Jones	Richard Marsh	Edward, Prince of Wales
1903	Rock Sand	Danny Maher	G. Blackwell	Sir James Miller
1915	Pommern	Steve Donoghue	Charles Peck	Solly Joel
1917	Gay Crusader	Steve Donoghue	Alec Taylor, Jr.	Alfred W. Cox
1918	Gainsborough	Joseph Childs	Alec Taylor, Jr.	Lady James Douglas
1935	Bahram	Freddie Fox	Frank Butters	HH Aga Khan III
1970	Nijinsky II	Lester Piggott	V. O’Brien	Charles W. Engelhard, Jr.