Some will say that since thoroughbred racing is finally receiving a larger, worthy share of print and electronic coverage due to one of the most compellingly successful Triple Crown series in modern history that this would not be the best time to alter a good thing by fooling with tradition. Additionally, the bump that racing is sure to receive with the movie release "Seabiscuit" and the continuing saga of classicists Funny Cide and Empire Maker in the Travers Stakes a month later is another reason for racing to maintain the status quo. Actually, nothing would be farther from the truth.

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All major sports have changed with the recent times, admittedly with mixed results, for two reasons: America's insatiable appetite for sports and television's need for meaningful reality programming. This trend, of course, pleases sports fans and results in the mega-million-dollar time and advertising buys that enrich networks. It's a basic win, win.

The lengthening of seasons, particularly in the major playoff sports, extends the duration of time that events remain on the public's radar, thereby building popularity and increasing market share through added exposure. So what does the lengthening of the major sports' seasons have to do with the sport of thoroughbred racing? Simply, it is time to make a good thing better. It is time to tweak the Triple Crown.

By definition a traditionalist, it is not lightly that I make a suggestion to Triple Crown Productions and to the non-existent head of racing's non-existent league office. I see a way to maintain the Triple Crown's degree of difficulty, increase excitement, give added exposure to one of racing's great events all while doing what's best for the horse.

In the week leading up to this year's second jewel, while racing's most dominant trainer was deciding to run, not run, run, then not start consensus Triple Crown favorite Empire Maker, media members from both coasts wanted to know; what's wrong with the Preakness?

How could the second leg of racing's Triple Crown only scare up five rivals to challenge an upstart New York-bred Kentucky Derby winner? When did crab cakes at the Inner Harbor go out of fashion? But there they were, only six to answer the starter's call, many of them eligible for piddling allowance conditions.

While the Belmont Stakes field was deep in both talent and promise, the "Test of the Champion" drew only another five rivals to de-rail Funny Cide's quest for immortality. Two of them did, although only one, Empire Maker, got the money and the Grade 1 classic title.

There are myriad reasons why sophomore thoroughbreds jump on and off the Triple Crown trail. For one, there is the lack of serious money. A million dollar purse is worthy prize indeed but there are 18 other million-dollar plus events in a racing season, eight of them the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships.

It seems it will take more than money to make these 3-year-olds go. Times have changed. Horses, 35,000 of them, are born every year but the best of them were bred for the sales ring and not for racing by owner-breeders did back in the day. Today's horses are sleek and speedy, not stout, and often are inherently unsound.

Horses that enter today's breeding shed, the best of the best, were likely to race on permitted medication, another reality of modern racing life, over surfaces that have less cushion than they used to. Speed is the one attribute that every horseman wants. It's the element that cannot be learned, the one variable that defines, without equivocation, class in the thoroughbred. But recovery time is the price you pay for speed.

Faster, speed-bred animals competing over today's glib surfaces don't race as often as their predecessors. Gone are the days when old-school horsemen would get to the bottom of their stock by giving them a race between the Preakness and Belmont, making sure their runners were fit enough for a demanding mile and a half marathon.

Medication, soundness, stoutness and harder, faster running surfaces notwithstanding, modern horsemen with a greater understanding of form-cycle handicapping analysis race today's thoroughbreds far less frequently. The reality of the modern thoroughbred game is that this trend will continue given the conditions.

As an aside, hasn't anyone noticed the unwillingness of the modern trainer to support the entry box since the sport's record keepers began publishing a trainer's win and loss percentages? At best, no one wants to run unless they think they can win. At worst, no one wants to look bad to potential clients.

And so the time has come for the Triple Crown to change. Keep the distances and venues exactly the same and continue to mark the unofficial coming of spring by running the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday. Besides, any other date for "America's Race" would be an infammia. But let's give the modern day 3-year-old a tad extra time to recover from his Derby efforts. The proposal is to renew the Preakness on the first Saturday in June, and the Belmont Stakes on the fourth of July. This makes the interval between events closer to nine weeks instead of the current five. Owners and trainers might be more inclined to stay the Triple Crown course.

For those objecting that such a change alters the integrity of the Triple Crown's challenge, consider: Wouldn't it be inherently more meaningful for horses and horsemen to sustain top form over a longer duration? Wouldn't it be more difficult if the Derby and/or Preakness winner had to defeat more rivals instead of fewer? Wouldn't late developers have a better chance to prove themselves in top class sooner, rather than await the Grade 1s of late summer and fall?

All this would upset none of the traditional prep schedules and actually allow horsemen time to develop their young, growing stock. The lesser Derbies would still have their place on the sport's calendar. Monmouth Park and Saratoga would need not alter the dates for renewals of the Haskell and Travers. Triple Crown and racing publicists would have another three weeks to bang their drums.

Further, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll of 3-year-olds would end in mid-July instead of a too early mid-June. This would be so that voters would not have to decide between an Empire Maker that beat Funny Cide two out of three falls, but who did not dance in every classic while his supposed inferior rival won two legs of the sport's most illusive prize.

A longer Triple Crown season would at once increase and decrease the degree of difficulty, brighten the spotlight, create and sustain added interest, produce bigger and better wagering fields, all while doing what's best for the modern thoroughbred. Like today's expanded major sports calendar, a win, win. Besides, what could be more American, more traditional, than celebrating a Triple Crown event on the Fourth of July?