RUIDOSO DOWNS, NM—JULY 27, 2017—It took Thoroughbred racing 37 years to get its next Triple Crown winner between Affirmed in 1978 and American Pharoah in 2015. Its been 36 years for Quarter Horses since Special Effort became it's only 2-year-old Triple Crown winner in 1981.

Following last Sunday's dominating win in the Grade 1 Million Rainbow Futurity, the #1 two-year-old in the country Eagle Jazz has a chance to become only the second Quarter Horse Triple Crown winner in history.

Juan Medina of Zapata, Texas and his horse Eagle Jazz are two races away from becoming the first horse ever to take the $4-million All American Triple Crown bonus. His total earning would be approximately $6.4-million, far and away the industry's all-time leading money earner.

In 1981, when Special Effort won the first Triple Crown, there was no bonus and total purse for the All American Futurity was only $1 million.

Eagle Jazz entered the Rainbow Futurity(G1) as the top ranked 2-year-old Quarter Horse in the nation in a poll by the American Quarter Horse Association. He earned the ranking by finishing in a dead heat with Uptown Dynasty in the first leg of the triple crown last month, the Grade 1 Ruidoso Futurity, after stumbling at the start.

The pair renewed their rivalry on Sunday and Eagle Jazz had a definitive edge defeating Uptown Dynasty by three-quarters of a length.

The colt from the second crop of world champion One Dashing Eagle was the fastest qualifier on the first day of Rainbow trials.

Trained by Judd Kearl and ridden by Rodrigo Vallejo, Eagle Jazz finished Sunday’s 400-yard race in :19.829 seconds and the victory netted Medina $420,000. The homebred has compiled a (7) 6-1-0 record and banked $900,449 this season. His only loss (by a head) was in the $1,012,500 Remington Park Oklahoma-Bred Futurity(RG2) last April.

Bred in Texas by Medina, Eagle Jazz is out of the Grade 1 winning Tres Seis mare Baja Jazz. Also, campaigned by Medina, the 11-year-old mare won or placed in seven of 12 starts to three and earned $156,763.

In the broodmare band, she has been equally important producing 11 foals, six of racing age, five to start, four ROM and two stakes winners.

Eagle Jazz is Baja Jazz' top runner but she is also the dam of 3-year-old Teller Baja, a winner of six of nine races and $464,317. Teller Baja won the 2015 Remington Park Oklahoma-Bred Futurity(RG2), was third in the All American Juvenile last season.

She also qualified to last week's $1.15 million Rainbow Derby(G1) at Ruidoso Downs, but finished a troubled 10th in the final. Teller Baja is a daughter of All American Futurity winner and multiple Grade 1 sire Teller Cartel.

Baja Jazz is also the dam of 2-year-old One Jazz, by One Sweet Jess (a half-brother to One Dashing Eagle), who has won two of three starts in 2017 and was finalist in the RG3 Easy Jet Stakes at Remington Park.

The focus now turns to the Grade 1, $3 million All American Futurity September 4 as Eagle Jazz attempts to qualify and then become the second ever Triple Crown winner and the first since Special Effort in 1981.

Since the inception of the Ruidoso Triple Crown in 1963 (the first leg Ruidoso Futurity use to be run as the Kansas Futurity), only three horses in history have had a chance to take the coveted honor.

The first was in 1974 when a colt named Tiny Gay won the Kansas and Rainbow Futurity then was beaten by a nose in the All American by a relatively unknown filly at the time named Easy Date. One year later the daughter of famed sire Easy Jet would become AQHA Racing's overall World Champion.

Enter Dan and Jolene Urschel of Canadian, Texas. In 1981 the two horses that the couple had brought to the Kansas Futurity (now the Ruidoso Futurity) failed to qualify.

After watching Special Effort handily win his trial, Urschel told his Agent Don Tyner he hoped he could pick the colt up for $500,000—after all, Special Effort had raced only twice and won less than $2,000. Trainer Johnie Goodman told Special Effort's owner Allen Taylor the colt was worth $1 million. The Urschels thought about it overnight, then wrote out a check.

The following Sunday Special Effort came from behind to win the Kansas Futurity final by one-length, with jockey Billy Hunt riding. His share of the purse was $260,522.

That was as close as Special Effort came to losing in his nine starts as a 2-year-old. The second leg of the Triple Crown was the 400-yard Rainbow Futurity at Ruidoso. Special Effort won by 1½ lengths and collected $232,536.

In the 18-year history of the Rainbow Futurity, only one other 2-year-old had also won the Kansas Futurity, the aforementioned Tiny's Gay in 1974. No horse had then gone on to take the All-American Futurity and the Triple Crown. It's a hard feat for 2-year-olds on such a heavy schedule.

The week before the All-American the Urschels decided to protect their investment by selling lifetime breeding shares in Special Effort. Through Quarter Horse Agent Don Tyner the couple put 100 shares on the market at $100,000 each, reserving 50 shares for themselves—in effect, putting the value of Special Effort at $15 million. The shares sold out in one week.

On Labor Day Special Effort fulfilled expectations by taking the All-American Futurity on a very, very muddy racetrack. Withstanding a bump from another horse out of the gate the son of Raise Your Glass (TB) blew by the field from the outside post position, winning by four lengths, still the largest margin in the 57-year history of the race.

Special Effort completed the Triple Crown and pushed his winnings to $1,026,721, a record for all Quarter Horses at that time.

In the 37 years since Special Effort won the Ruidoso Triple Crown there have been only two other horses that won both the Ruidoso and Rainbow Futurities.

In 1993 Wayne Dallas' Treacherously, a gelding by Runaway Winner, won the Ruidoso and Rainbow Futurity and then finished third to A Classic Dash and Heza Fast Man in the $1,937,035 All American Futurity after getting bumped at the start.

In 2005, Leading Spirit, a grandson of Special Effort co-owned by the Urschels with breeder Barry Thompson, won the Ruidoso and Rainbow Futurity but finished fifth in his All American trial and failed to qualify.

A piece of history of note is the last trainer to win the Rainbow Futurity and the Rainbow Derby in the same year was Johnie Goodman in 1981 with Special Effort and Higheasterjet.

In 2017 trainer Judd Kearl won the Rainbow Futurity with Eagle Jazz and the Rainbow Derby with Hold Air Hostage.

The trials for the All American Futurity run August 18-19. All eyes will be on Eagle Jazz.