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Brookfield Corporation (BN -4.28%) completed a three-for-two stock split earlier this week. The global investment firm split its shares to make them more accessible to individual investors and to enhance the trading liquidity of its stock.

Over the past 30 years, the company has completed several stock splits as a result of delivering a total return exceeding 27,000%. Brookfield has consistently outperformed the broader market, with a 19% annualized total return over the last three decades compared to 11% for the S&P 500. Looking forward, Brookfield expects to continue delivering strong growth, which could triple the value of its shares by 2030

Image source: Getty Images.

Brookfield: The wealth-creating machine

Despite its impressive returns, many investors aren’t too familiar with Brookfield. The Canadian company is a leading global investment manager with three businesses:

• Asset management: The company owns a 73% interest in Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative investment manager with over $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM).
• Wealth solutions: Brookfield Wealth Solutions is an investment-led insurance company that offers annuities, as well as property, casualty, and life insurance.
• Operating businesses: It owns interests in four global operating platforms focused on infrastructure (Brookfield Infrastructure), renewable energy (Brookfield Renewable), private equity (Brookfield Business), and real estate (Brookfield Property).

These businesses generate significant and rapidly growing operating cash flows, enabling Brookfield to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, while also allocating funds to enhance shareholder value.

Over the last five years, Brookfield has grown its distributable earnings at a 22% compound annual rate, raising them from $2 billion in 2020 to an expected $5.3 billion this year. This growth puts the company’s intrinsic value at $102 per share (pre-split), well above the recent pre-split stock price of less than $70 a share. Over the past year, Brookfield has returned $1.5 billion to investors ($1 billion for share repurchases and $500 million in dividends), while retaining the remaining capital for reinvestment.

The plan leading to 2030

Brookfield expects to continue growing rapidly over the next five years. The company aims to deliver annualized total distributable earnings-per-share growth of 25% during this period. Within this, its core businesses should generate 20% annualized growth, with an additional 5% growth anticipated from capital allocation activities. As a result, Brookfield estimates its share value could increase at an annual rate of 16%, potentially rising to $210 (pre-split) by 2030 — a projected increase of over 200% from current levels.

The investment firm anticipates that its wealth solutions business will be a significant growth driver through 2030, accounting for over one-third of its anticipated total growth. Management’s goal is to grow its insurance assets from $135 billion currently to $350 billion by 2030, which it expects would more than double the platform’s earnings in the next five years. Brookfield has been expanding this platform through acquisitions, most recently announcing an agreement to acquire Just Group for $3.2 billion, expanding its reach to the UK pension risk market.

Brookfield also sees robust future growth for its asset management business. The company anticipates capitalizing on growing investor demand for alternative investments, which typically offer higher returns and lower volatility compared to traditional asset classes. Many individual investors have relatively low exposure to alternatives, representing a major market opportunity given that they hold $40 trillion in wealth.

Finally, Brookfield generates significant free cash flow, providing capital to grow shareholder value. The company estimates that by 2030, it will produce $25 billion in cumulative surplus free cash flow after dividend payments and current capital commitments, which it can allocate to acquisitions, fund investments, and other opportunities.

A top stock-split stock to buy now and hold for the next five years

Brookfield Corporation has consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to grow shareholder value over the years. As a result, it has had to split its stock several times, including earlier this week. More stock splits seem likely, given the company’s robust growth profile. That makes it a great stock to buy post-split, as shares could triple in value from here by 2030.

Police in Peru say they have arrested the main suspects in the murders of two women and a girl whose torture was streamed live on social media in Argentina, prompting outrage and mass protests.

Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat during his Triple Crown year in 1973 and electrified the sport, died Friday at his home near Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada. He was 84. According to his longtime friend and business partner Leonard Lusky, his death was due to natural causes.

Turcotte, who despite being in a wheelchair since 1978 after a riding accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, often showed up at big races to sign autographs, pose for pictures and act as an ambassador for the sport.

During his almost two-decade career, beginning in 1961, Turcotte won 3,023 races with lifetime earnings of more than $28 million. He was forced to retire in 1978 when, at 36, he suffered career-ending injuries in a spill at Belmont Park.

Turcotte’s accomplishments earned him a spot in six different Halls of Fame, including the National Racing Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. He won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented at Santa Anita, the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award, given in Canada, and the Turf Publicists Big Sport of Turfdom Award.

He spent much of his later years bringing attention to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, or PDJF.

Of all his more than 3,000 wins, he will most be remembered for his ride aboard Secretariat winning the Triple Crown and Belmont Stakes by an unheard of 31 lengths.

“I couldn’t hear the announcer all the time, saying how far I was in front,” Turcotte told The Times in 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of Secretariat winning the Triple Crown. “I knew I was quite a ways in front because I couldn’t hear any other horses hitting the ground behind me. When I got the quarter pole I looked and I could barely see them and I looked at the clock and saw 1:59 on the board, which was faster than we ran the Derby.”

The family plans a private funeral and asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the PDJF. Turcotte is survived by his wife of almost 60 years, Gaetane, and their four daughters: Tina, Ann, Lynn and Tammy.

SHAUN MURPHY has given his verdict on where the glamorous Saudi Arabia Masters ranks among snooker’s top tournaments.

He claims that the tournament is still far behind the game’s triple crown events, the traditional peak of the Snooker calendar.

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The Saudi event offers some of the sport’s biggest prize pots, with the top players in the world competing for a total prize pool of over £2.3million.

Despite the money being comparable to the prizes on offer in the Snooker World Championships, Murphy feels that the event cannot hold a candle to its more prestigious counterparts.

He told Metro: “I’ve still got one foot in the history camp.

“I still think the history and the legacy of the existing three majors, the Triple Crown events, I think they’re stand alone events.

“This event obviously rivals the World Championship in terms of prize money and it’s a 10-year deal, so it’s got the potential to become in great standing.

“But at the moment, for me, the other three would still be ahead of this one, despite the prize money.”

The winner of the Saudi event will pocket a hefty £500,000 prize, the same on offer at the World Championships.

There is even a £50,000 bounty for any player who manages a 147 break at the tournament, meaning the potential prizes are also very attractive to lower ranked players hoping to pull off a miracle.

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But the 43-year-old says that money can only bring the tournament so far when trying to compete with the game’s most established events.

“You can’t buy legacy. The prize money here is massive and we’re all enjoying competing and somebody is going to walk away with £500,000 this week, it’s an amazing opportunity and we’re all very grateful for it.

“But the legacy and how special the Triple Crown events are, you can’t buy that.

“For me, those events are head and shoulders above everything else.”

There are few more qualified to speak on the prestige that comes with the triple crown events, with ‘The Magician’ having won all three, including a World Championship title in 2005.

List of all-time Snooker World Champions

BELOW is a list of snooker World Champions by year.

The record is for the modern era, widely considered as dating from the 1968-69 season, when the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) took control of the sport.

The first World Championships ran from 1927 – with a break from 1941-45 because of World War II and 1958-63 because of a dispute in the sport.

Joe Davis (15), Fred Davis and John Pulman (both 8) were the most successful players during that period.

Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan share the record for the most titles in the modern era, with seven each.

• 1969 – John Spencer
• 1970 – Ray Reardon
• 1971 – John Spencer
• 1972 – Alex Higgins
• 1973 – Ray Reardon (2)
• 1974 – Ray Reardon (3)
• 1975 – Ray Reardon (4)
• 1976 – Ray Reardon (5)
• 1977 – John Spencer (2)
• 1978 – Ray Reardon (6)
• 1979 – Terry Griffiths
• 1980 – Cliff Thorburn
• 1981 – Steve Davis
• 1982 – Alex Higgins (2)
• 1983 – Steve Davis (2)
• 1984 – Steve Davis (3)
• 1985 – Dennis Taylor
• 1986 – Joe Johnson
• 1987 – Steve Davis (4)
• 1988 – Steve Davis (5)
• 1989 – Steve Davis (6)
• 1990 – Stephen Hendry
• 1991 – John Parrott
• 1992 – Stephen Hendry (2)
• 1993 – Stephen Hendry (3)
• 1994 – Stephen Hendry (4)
• 1995 – Stephen Hendry (5)
• 1996 – Stephen Hendry (6)
• 1997 – Ken Doherty
• 1998 – John Higgins
• 1999 – Stephen Hendry (7)
• 2000 – Mark Williams
• 2001 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
• 2002 – Peter Ebdon
• 2003 – Mark Williams (2)
• 2004 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
• 2005 – Shaun Murphy
• 2006 – Graeme Dott
• 2007 – John Higgins (2)
• 2008 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (3)
• 2009 – John Higgins (3)
• 2010 – Neil Robertson
• 2011 – John Higgins (4)
• 2012 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (4)
• 2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (5)
• 2014 – Mark Selby
• 2015 – Stuart Bingham
• 2016 – Mark Selby (2)
• 2017 – Mark Selby (3)
• 2018 – Mark Williams (3)
• 2019 – Judd Trump
• 2020 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (6)
• 2021 – Mark Selby (4)
• 2022 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (7)
• 2023 – Luca Brecel
• 2024 – Kyren Wilson
• 2025 – Zhao Xintong

Most World Titles (modern era)

• 7 – Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan
• 6 – Ray Reardon, Steve Davis
• 4 – John Higgins, Mark Selby
• 3 – John Spencer, Mark Williams
• 2 – Alex Higgins

But Murphy won’t be bagging another big win in Saudi Arabia, following his 6-1 loss to world number three Mark Williams earlier today.

Ronnie O’Sullivan plays today for a spot in the quarter-finals, while world number one and defending champion Judd Trump was stunned on Tuesday in his round of 32 bout with 68th ranked Oliver Lines.

SMARTY’s latest offer hands you a massive data boost for no extra cash.

Right now, you can bag 24GB of data for only £7 a month, the same price you’d normally pay for just 8GB.

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Smarty SIM-only deal, 8GB 24GB data for £7/month

That’s triple the data without spending a penny extra.

It’s Smarty’s latest push to give shoppers more for their money, and frankly, it’s a pretty solid offer.

If you’re after enough data to stream Spotify, scroll socials, and cover your everyday browsing on the go, this plan has you well covered.

You’re on a low, flat monthly fee with no sneaky mid-contract price hikes lurking in the small print.

And because Smarty runs on rolling 1-month contracts, you can walk away whenever you like, no strings attached.

That kind of freedom is a big part of why Smarty has built such a loyal following among budget-conscious shoppers..

The service rides on Three’s network, which already offers solid coverage across most of the UK.

To be sure, you can double-check your signal with Smarty’s handy coverage checker before you sign up.

There are a few tempting offers on the table right now, but the standout is the 8GB SIM-only plan, currently boosted to a chunky 24GB for just £7 a month.

That’s not bad at all when you consider some providers will happily charge you twice as much for a fraction of the allowance.

Best SIM-only Smarty deals:

If 24GB isn’t enough, you’ll find other plans going up to unlimited data, still at budget rates.

Here are some of the best:

But for light-to-moderate users, the triple-data offer is hard to beat.

And with no contract tie-in, you can switch, upgrade, or leave whenever you fancy.

If you’re also hunting for other tech savings, there are a couple of standouts doing the rounds this week.

You can boost your online security and save 72% on NordVPN, and they’re throwing in a free Amazon gift card worth £50 just for signing up.

And for those who want a new handset without the big spend, there’s an ‘excellent condition’ refurbished iPhone 13 going for just £20 a month.

If these deals don’t quite fit the bill, have a look at our roundup of the best SIM-only deals from all the big networks.

Smarty SIM-only deal, 8GB 24GB data for £7/month

Tehran, Iran – Every morning at 6am, Sara reaches for her phone – not to check messages, but to see when the day’s blackout will begin.

The 44-year-old digital marketer in Tehran has memorised the weekly electricity schedule yet still checks her phone each morning for last-minute changes as she plans her life around the two-hour power cuts.

“Without electricity, there is no air conditioner to make the heat tolerable,” Sara says, describing how Iran’s convergent crises – water scarcity, power shortages and record-breaking temperatures – have fundamentally altered her daily routine.

The water service cuts are unannounced. They last hours at a time and truly unnerve Sara, so she scrambles to fill buckets whenever she can before the taps run dry.

Crisis

For millions of Iranians, this summer has brought survival challenges in light of record-breaking heat, according to data from Iran’s Meteorological Organization.

The country is simultaneously grappling with its fifth consecutive year of drought, chronic energy deficits and unprecedented heat, a perfect storm that is exposing the fragility of basic services.

The Meteorological Organization said rainfall is down 40 percent during the current water year, the 12-month rainfall-tracking period, which starts in autumn.

As of July 28, Iran had received only 137mm (5.4 inches) of precipitation compared with the long-term average of 228.2mm (9 inches).

The electricity shortage is rooted in both infrastructure limitations and fuel supply challenges that have caused production capacity to fall behind rapidly rising demand.

An October report from parliament’s Research Center showed 85 percent of Iran’s electricity comes from fossil fuels, 13 percent from hydropower and the remainder from renewables and nuclear power.

While Iran possesses vast gas and oil reserves, decades of sanctions and underinvestment in transmission networks and power plants mean the system can’t keep up with consumption.

Adding to these capacity constraints, fuel supply disruptions have forced some power stations to resort sometimes to using mazut (heavy fuel oil) instead of natural gas, but authorities try to restrict it due to air pollution concerns.

Summer droughts compound the crisis by reducing hydroelectric generation precisely when air conditioning demand peaks, leaving millions of Iranians planning their lives around predictable blackouts and unpredictable water outages.

Survival

Twenty-six-year-old Fatemeh moved to Tehran from Andisheh, a town 15km (9 miles) west of the capital, a year ago to pursue her education.

She rented her first apartment, an exciting milestone that became a daily exercise in crisis management.

Fatemeh’s first unannounced water cut saw her in a sweltering apartment with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The first thing I did was to stop moving altogether so my body temperature wouldn’t rise,” she recalls.

With only two bottles of drinking water and a block of ice available, she carefully rationed her supplies although she used precious ice to cool her feet.

Showering and using the bathroom became challenges, she says, describing how she ordered expensive bottled water online and used two bottles just to shower.

Now, after months of unpredictable outages, Fatemeh has a survival routine: storing water in multiple containers, pouring it into her evaporative cooler when cuts occur and tossing blocks of ice into vents during extreme heat.

When both the water and electricity go, she says it “feels like having a fever” and she soaks towels in her stored water to press them against her body for relief.

The balcony offers no escape. The air outside remains hotter than indoors, even at night.

Ripple effect

The infrastructure crisis extends beyond household inconveniences and is threatening livelihoods across the economy as offices and retail shops are forced to close for hours or for the day.

The repeated shutdowns and the economic pinch they cause could lead to layoffs, affecting families who depend on these jobs.

Small businesses face particular challenges.

Pastry shop owners have shared videos of themselves throwing spoiled cakes away after refrigerators fail.

Remote work, promoted as a solution, becomes impossible when homes lack both electricity and internet connectivity.

Shahram, a 38-year-old software company manager, says he has to send his employees home sometimes.

“Power cuts usually occur between 12 and 5pm,” he says. “That coincides with peak work hours, … [so] if  the power cuts happen at 2, 3 or 4pm, I usually send everyone home because there’s no point. By the time power comes back, it is the end of their working day.”

Experts attribute the energy crisis to insufficient investment, failure to adopt new technologies – both of which are influenced by international sanctions – and unsustainable consumption.

Mohammad Arshadi, a water governance researcher and member of the Strategic Council of the Tadbir-E-Abe Iran think tank, agrees, saying Iran’s water crisis requires fundamental changes in consumption patterns.

While natural scarcity has been amplified by climate change, he says the main reason behind the current problem is how water is being used in Iran.

Expansion of water-intensive farming, large industries and urban sprawl have “fuelled the runaway growth of water demand”, he says.

Uncertainty

Back in her apartment, Sara continues checking her phone each morning, adjusting her schedule like millions of Iranians who have learned to navigate this new reality.

For Fatemeh, the psychological adjustment proves as challenging as the practical adaptations. Each morning brings new uncertainty about whether water will flow from her taps or electricity will power her laptop.

In a country where citizens once took infrastructure for granted, a generation is learning to live with scarcity.

As Iran approaches another winter with unresolved water and energy deficits, the experiences of Sara, Fatemeh, Shahram and millions like them suggest that the country’s infrastructure crisis has moved beyond temporary inconvenience to become a defining feature of modern Iranian life.

This story was published in collaboration with @Egab. 

Normally, the running of the Belmont Stakes without a chance at a Triple Crown winner makes the third leg of the series about as interesting as a television procedural — the Chicagos, FBIs or Law & Orders — in the last two minutes after the culprit has been identified and prosecuted.

But not this year. The 157th running of the Belmont Stakes has about as many plot lines as a season of “The White Lotus.” It’s easily the best race of the year, and, yes, that includes the Kentucky Derby.

You’ve got your sentimental favorite in Journalism, whose stretch drive in winning the Preakness Stakes could make almost anyone a fan of horse racing.

You’ve got your villain in Sovereignty, who kicked racing tradition in the teeth after winning the Kentucky Derby when his connections refused to enter him in the Preakness Stakes because of the short time frame — two weeks — between the first two legs of the Triple Crown. It killed any opportunity racing had to build a new fan base revolving around the Derby and a possible Triple Crown winner.

You’ve got your fresh-faced wannabe in Rodriguez, whose last race was a win in the Wood Memorial. He was scheduled to run in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but a sore hoof forced him to withdraw from both races. His early speed and front-running ability likely means he’ll be on the lead as the horses head down the backstretch. Add to that the fact that he is trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Mike Smith, both Hall of Famers who know how to get a horse from gate to wire in winning form.

And finally, you’ve got a wiseguy (professional gamblers) horse in Baeza, whose talent far exceeds his early results. He finished a strong third in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Santa Anita Derby behind Journalism. He is also trying to find a place in history for his mom, Puca, who has produced Kentucky Derby winner Mage and last year’s Belmont winner in Dornoch. If Baeza were to win, he would be the first horse who has a dam who has won three Classic races. That’s a record.

And that’s just half of the eight-horse field.

Whoever finishes first, the victory is likely to be remembered as having an asterisk next to it. The Belmont Stakes, considered the test of champions because of its normal 1 1/2-mile distance, is being run at the less interesting distance of 1 1/4 miles. The reason is the race has been moved from Long Island’s Belmont Park to Saratoga Race Track in Saratoga Springs, a suburb of the New York state capital of Albany, because of a massive rebuild at Belmont Park.

The reason the race was shortened is because to have a 1 1/2-mile race at Saratoga, the horses would have to start on a turn, something the organizers didn’t want to happen.

The starting positions add little clarity as to who might win. Sovereignty (post 2, 2-1 on morning line) should have no problem getting early running room, especially with Rodriguez on his immediate outside. Rodriguez (post 3, 6-1) and Crudo (post 5, 15-1) are expected to battle for the lead early. Crudo’s last win was his last outing with a 7 1/4-length win in the Sir Barton Stakes at Pimlico.

Journalism will be breaking from post 7 at 8-5 morning line odds.

“He’s been kind of the same horse since July of last summer,” Michael McCarthy, trainer of Journalism, told NYRA publicity. “He does everything you ask a good horse to do — eats well, trains well, packs well. I thought the last six or seven weeks here, his energy has been the same throughout. Obviously, Saratoga is very good for horses. He seems reenergized up here. I’m looking forward to a wonderful renewal of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.”

If either Journalism or Sovereignty wins, they will be the first repeat winner of a Classic race since Justify in 2018, who won all three Triple Crown races. Since then, no horse has won more than one Classic race, making it a 21-race streak. Of course, Triple Crown races are only for 3-year-olds meaning trainers start every year fresh trying to find prospective winners.

Racing is in desperate need of stars and the chase for the Triple Crown is one way of getting them. It’s why there was such consternation when trainer Bill Mott and owner Godolphin, decided to skip the Preakness Stakes.

“You never know until they actually do it in a race,” said Michael Banahan, who heads Godolphin in the U.S. “He always gave us that indication that he’d like to go long. And we thought the Derby as well and then finished up, from the top of the stretch to the wire in very good fashion and galloped all the way through the wire.

Crudo is a 15-1 longshot to win the Belmont Stakes, which features an eight-horse field.

(Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

“So, I’m with the Belmont this year at Saratoga. He just has to do the same distance again. So, I would anticipate that’ll be fine for him. I suppose if it were a regular Belmont at Belmont Park, that’ll be another question to answer going that far. It certainly looks like a mile-and-a-quarter was well [within] his wheelhouse in the Derby and anticipate that it shouldn’t be any issue at Saratoga as well.”

The horse that is poised to pull the upset is Baeza, who has only won one race, a maiden at Santa Anita. His second-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby would have normally been enough to get him in the Kentucky Derby. But Churchill Downs, in an obvious attack at West Coast races, lowered the point total because of a small field.

Trainer John Shirreffs did not want to bring the horse to Churchill Downs, hoping there were enough scratches to get him in the race. Shirreffs was overruled by the owners so he stood on the backside at Barn 41 while hoping for an entry to the world’s most famous race. The reprieve, and entry, came when Rodriguez was scratched because of a sore hoof.

Baeza more than proved his entry into the Derby with a strong third-place finish.

“I think Baeza, week by week, he’s developed a little bit more,” said Shirreffs. “He’s developed a little bit more. I see him, maybe, a little bit taller, a little ‘stretchier’ He seems to be holding his weight really well. And you can really get an image of him now is what he’ll look like as a 4-year-old. So, you’re starting to see him emerge.”

The most likely scenario is the winner of the Belmont Stakes will come from the four most prominent horses. It’s more than possible that the 21-race streak without a repeat winner will be over.

But they run the races to answer that question.

Alyssa Lee of El Camino Real has achieved something few volleyball coaches can claim.

With El Camino Real’s boys team winning the City Section Open Division championship on Saturday after an upset over No. 1-seeded Venice, Lee has won City titles coaching El Camino Real’s boys, girls and beach volleyball teams, the Triple Crown of volleyball coaching.

“That’s very impressive,” said Granada Hills coach Tom Harp, who had Lee on his girls’ team when she graduated in 2009.

Harp, a future Hall of Fame coach in the City Section, said Lee is calm and comfortable on the bench and knows strategy well.

El Camino Real opens the state playoffs on Tuesday in Division 2 with a home game against Escondido Classical Academy.

Mira Costa is seeded No. 1 in Division 1…

The CIF Southern California tennis championships will be held Friday and Saturday at Claremont Club. Here’s the bracket…

Southern Section golf team championships are set for Monday and Tuesday. The individual championship will be Thursday. The City Section championships are Wednesday at Harding Golf Course.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

BALTIMORE — Horse racing’s biggest prize is winning the three legs of the Triple Crown — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. Three races in five weeks. It’s difficult, which is why only 13 horses have done it in more than a century.

It probably goes without saying that to achieve that goal, a horse actually has to run in all three races. And therein lies the rub.

For the third time in seven years, the winner of the Kentucky Derby is not running in the Preakness Stakes. Many in racing believe that horses aren’t trained, or even bred, to come back and race on two weeks’ rest. Others say it’s not that big of a deal to come back so quickly.

Horse racing embraces change about as well as giving your dog or cat a pill. It can be done, but it sure isn’t easy.

Aidan Butler, the president of 1/ST Racing, which owned Pimlico Race Course at the time, stirred the discussion two years ago when he suggested racing needed to look at the spacing between the Triple Crown races. He thought the sport would benefit if there was at least one more week between the Derby and Preakness. It would have meant that the Belmont Stakes would also have to move at least a week.

Belinda Stronach, chairman of The Stronach Group, the parent company of 1/ST Racing, even called the New York Racing Assn. (NYRA) to lobby the case for changing the dates. NYRA didn’t bite.

In hindsight, Butler thinks it was a case of bad timing.

“In fairness to NYRA, what and when I was suggesting a change, they were moving [the Belmont Stakes temporarily] to Saratoga,” Butler said. “They changed the distance from 1 ½ miles to 1 ¼ miles. And there was the construction at Belmont Park . That’s a lot to deal with. And we’re asking to change the date. I think it was maybe too much too soon.”

While things quieted in the corporate offices, it remained a hot topic on the backstretch.

Bill Mott, the trainer of this year’s Derby winner Sovereignty, ended the speculation early by saying he was skipping the Preakness on Saturday and pointing to the Belmont. Mott also skipped the Preakness when Country House won the 2019 Derby, although the stated reason was the horse developed a cough.

In 2022, Rich Strike, the longshot winner of the Derby, also skipped the Preakness because of the short turnaround.

Kenny McPeek, trainer of last year’s Derby winner Mystik Dan, said on the Tony Kornheiser podcast that he wishes he would have made a different decision and not gone to the Preakness.

“If I could have a do-over, I wouldn’t have gone last year,” McPeek said. “I think it was a mistake on my part.”

This year only three of the nine Preakness starters ran in the Kentucky Derby: Journalism (2nd), Sandman (7th) and American Promise (16th). The Baltimore Sun surveyed all the Derby horses from 2022 to 2025 and found that only 10 of the 67 horses ran in both the Derby and Preakness. That’s an abysmal 15% participation rate.

Michael McCarthy, trainer of Preakness favorite Journalism, would prefer to keep things the way they are.

“I think it’s demanding and meant to separate the greats,” McCarthy said. “I think it captivates the average observer for the five weeks. Sometimes there’s some great stories involved. This year we’re not going to have [a Triple Crown winner], but we’re still going to have a great Triple Crown series.

“Obviously, with the Belmont going to Saratoga last year and this year, it makes for a little bit of a different kind of a series. … I’m a bit of a traditionalist in that way, but I think three races in five weeks is good.”

Wayne Lukas, who trains American Promise, has been around racing longer than anyone. The 89-year-old has won the Preakness seven times, including last year with Seize the Grey.

“I’ve been pushing for a change in that tradition for 20 years,” Lukas said. “But then Bob Baffert comes up and wins [the Triple Crown] twice. So that silenced everybody pretty much.

“I thought that we could run the first Saturday in May and then run the Preakness on Memorial Day weekend … when everybody’s off work and then run the Belmont on the Fourth of July. But in order to get that done, you got to have three race tracks agree. And that’s really difficult.”

Baffert, who won the Triple Crown with American Pharoah and Justify and is running Goal Oriented in the Preakness, chooses to play Switzerland in this discussion.

“I don’t get involved in that conversation because I’ll do whatever [they want],” Baffert said. “We should just take it to Santa Anita for one year. Bring it out there. Don’t need your raincoats. Get a tan while you’re out there.”

Trainer Mark Casse, who has Sandman in the Preakness, has changed his mind on the topic.

“For a long time, I’ve said ‘No, I like the two weeks,” Casse said. “It’s not supposed to be easy. One of the things that drives me crazy is when people say, ‘Well, this is the way we’ve always done it.’ I believe that the world gets smarter every day, and if you stand still, you get run over.

“I think if we’re going to continue losing Kentucky Derby winners because of the two weeks, then I think we got to really seriously look at making it maybe a month and a month.”

Butler brought up another theory as to why fewer horses run the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for 3-year-olds,” Butler said. “When the Triple Crown was the Triple Crown back in the day, that was it for big money races and you wanted to be there. That’s why you had a lot of the Derby horses running back to run for the money. Now, there are so many other opportunities, and two weeks doesn’t fit in.”

The Preakness is considered the easiest of the three races to win. It has a field about half the size of the Derby, which is considered the most difficult of the three to win. It also is 1/16 of a mile shorter than the Derby and 5/16th of a mile shorter than a traditional Belmont Stakes.

Doug O’Neill, when he was campaigning Derby winner Nyquist in 2016, might have offered the best explanation of why running the Preakness two weeks after the Derby is a good idea.

“You’re coming back so quick [after two weeks], you don’t have time to screw them up,” O’Neill said.

The topic likely will remain quiet for 50 weeks until the connections of next year’s Kentucky Derby winner decide to go to Baltimore or wait for New York.