Best bargain in sports? Nominating a Triple Crown contender costs the same now as in 1986

In 1986, you could buy a gallon of gas for less than a buck.

A movie ticket was about $2.75.

Rent cost maybe $300 a month. A new home could be had for under $100,000, and college tuition ran about $1,000 a year.

And if you owned a horse and fancied a shot at a Triple Crown, the cost to nominate your thoroughbred to run in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes was $600.

While the cost of pretty much everything else has skyrocketed since the ‘80s, do you know what hasn’t?

In possibly the best bargain in all of sports, the cost of nominating a horse to the Triple Crown is no different today than when the procedure was adopted in 1986.

Churchill Downs announced Tuesday that 373 thoroughbreds were nominated to run in the 2025 Triple Crown series, their owners making the bargain-basement $600 payment by the Jan. 27 deadline.

This year’s total represents a 7.8% increase from last year’s 346 early nominations. A record 69 Japan-based horses were nominated, which topped last year’s record of 47.

Headlining this year’s list is Citizen Bull, winner of the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The Bob Baffert trainee made his 2025 debut last Saturday by easily winning the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

Baffert is expected to saddle a horse in the Kentucky Derby this year for the first time since 2021, when his Medina Spirit crossed the finish line first but was later disqualified because of a failed drug test. That disqualification led to a three-year suspension from Churchill Downs for the Hall of Fame trainer.

Twenty-one horses trained by Baffert were on Tuesday’s list of Triple Crown nominees, but one trainer has more: fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher with 32. Lexington native Kenny McPeek, who won last year’s Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan, has a dozen nominees, falling in just behind Louisville-based Brad Cox (14) and Chad Brown (13).

Sixty of the nominees have already won stakes races, including the top 10 point leaders on the Road to the Kentucky Derby: Citizen Bull, Speed King, Coal Battle, Burnham Square, Disco Time, Captain Cook, Built, Gaming, Getaway Car and Jonathan’s Way. The nominees also include Grade I winners Chancer McPatrick and East Avenue.

The Triple Crown will begin with the 151st running of the $5 million Kentucky Derby on May 3 over 1 ¼ miles at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The series continues with the $2 million Preakness Stakes at 1 3/16 miles on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, and concludes with the $2 million Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in New York over 1 ¼ miles on June 7.

Three-year-olds not nominated during the early phase can still join the Triple Crown trail by making a late payment of $6,000 by April 7.

In 1986, a late nomination cost only half that.

See, that $600 early fee might really be the best bargain you can find.

Triple Crown nominees by the numbers

$3,200,000 — The highest-priced public auction purchase: Barnes (2023 Fasig-Tipton August Sale)

$1,421,000 — Highest lifetime earnings: Citizen Bull

268 — Kentucky-bred nominees, the most of any state or country. Others: Japan (54), Florida (14), New York (11), Maryland (9), Louisiana (4), Pennsylvania (3), Ontario (2), Virginia (2), California (1), France (1), Iowa (1), Ireland (1), Ohio (1) and West Virginia (1)

181 — Bay-colored horses. Other colors: Dark bay/brown (89), chestnut (69), gray/roan (30), gray (4)

146 — Trainers with horses nominated to the Triple Crown

60 — Stakes winners nominated

32 — Horses nominated from trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn, followed by Bob Baffert (21), Brad Cox (14), Chad Brown (13) and Kenny McPeek (12)

21 — Horses sired by Into Mischief, the most of any stallion. Others: Not This Time (14), Nyquist (13), Constitution (11), Curlin (11), Gun Runner (11) and Uncle Mo (11)

20 — Geldings nominated

7 — Fillies nominated: Beauty Reigns (trainer Bill Mott), Mistress (Yoshito Yahagi), Necessity (Norm Casse), Promised Gene (Yuki Uehara), Queen’s Chocolat (Koichi Shintani), Velvet Devil (Mike Tomlinson) and Vilja Lied (Masayuki Nishimura)

3 — Ridglings nominated

May 29, 2022 — Latest foal among nominees: Gunmetal

Jan. 8, 2022 — Earliest foal among nominees: Promised Gene