Saturday sees the running of the final leg of the American Triple Crown and the entire racing world is holding its breath to see if the US breeding industry can produce a Triple Crown winner after 37 years. Affirmed, in 1978, is the last US horse to win the grueling three race series.
In American Pharoah however, there is a different type of horse putting its reputation on the line. This is a horse who is eminently qualified to create history. A two-year-old champion who has trained on powerfully at three. What more can be asked?.
What is also special about American Pharoah is that he was bred by the owner out of a sire that he also successfully campaigned.
Saturday also sees the running of the English Derby at Epsom Downs. This is arguably the most famous race in history and for the first time in many years, the established powerhouse of British racing, the Aidan O'Brien stable will not be fielding the Derby favourite.
In fact, for the first time in many years, it seems that all of the money available could not buy a Derby winner for the Coolmore partnership. I may be talking out of turn because Coolmore does field a number of lesser fancied contenders in the big race but it doesn't look like the winner will be amongst them.
Instead, it is the owner/breeder that has come to the fore. There is no doubt that owning a Derby winner is exhilarating but owning and breeding one has to be the ultimate in racing satisfaction.
Over the years in the UK, the owner/breeder has been marginalised as the big pocket owners are able to make offers that are sometimes too good to resist. It is therefore particularly pleasing when, every once in a while, a good one escapes notice.
That is not to say that they escape notice forever with Coolmore rushing in to snap up American Pharoah's breeding rights and Godolphin rushing in to snap up a half share in Jack Hobbs (English Derby contender).
In Trinidad, we are well on our way with our own Triple Crown and the series is once again being dominated by Jamaican-bred horses.
In the two legs to date, only three Trinidad-bred horses have competed and in last week's Midsummer Classic, there was only one Trinidad-bred animal. This trend goes back to the 2014 Trinidad Derby in which only one locally-bred animal competed.
There is no doubt that we can breed good animals but again the issue comes down to economics and a lack of incentives. We definitely need to do more to encourage the owner/breeder in our sport.
One of the most successful owner/breeders in recent time has been the Poon Tip Stud Farm and we need to continue to explore avenues for encouraging their presence.
It was very disheartening when we learned of the demise of Rancho Caballero, which has been successfully run by the Trestrail family for so many years. To see that wonderful estate transformed into HDC housing was a very sorry development for the industry in this country but we cannot go back.
At risk at the moment is the Leeclare Stud Farm, owned in part by the late Ainsley Mark. Mark's passion for the sport will be hard to replicate and the fate of this stud farm which has produced many top class horses locally is still to be determined.
To foster farms like Leeclare, we need more support for owner/breeders in this twin island state. Some of the other prominent farms are Hummingbird Stables (Ferreiras), the Ponderosa Stud Farm (Charles James), Amigo Farms, Paradise Farms, La Concepcion, Floraville Stud.
Most of these farms are involved in the sport because of their love of the animal since it is very difficult for stud farms to be commercially successful.
This is why support is required from those in authority. The exact nature of the sport has been evolving but we need to quicken up the pace. It is refreshing to see many more races for the native-bred horses only.
It is also refreshing to see more classic and condition races being framed for native-bred horses, even one for horses four years old and over. Many more such races are required.
Interestingly, there is a school of thought that the native-bred horses are out-performed by their Jamaican counterparts at two and three but that the playing field becomes much more level from four years old and over.
The arguments in support of this school are that the Jamaican-bred are far more precocious than the native-bred and so would dominate events during the traditional classic year.
The native breds, although slower to mature, are able to match their Jamaican counterparts eventually. Given the breeding profiles, it is not hard to understand the logic of this argument. Efforts should therefore be made to increase the number of classic/condition races put on for the older animals.
These incentives being meant to encourage owners to invest in native-bred animals and therefore support the local breeding farms.
It is time for the sport to move forward by championing more and more of our farms to ensure their survival. We are not going to have a National Stud Farm anytime soon, so we just need to crack on with supporting and developing what we have.
The incentives to improve the breeding stock are in train and now we need to make it more worthwhile to persevere with the local stock.