Early 9f winners

[Dahoss]

Barbaro won at 9 furlongs on grass off the top of my head.

Monarchos won the 9 furlong Florida Derby before his 2nd in the Wood when the Florida Derby was run in early March.

The reality is there aren’t a lot of 9 furlong races for either two year olds or 3 year olds prior to the final prep before the Derby.

[Dahoss]

Always Dreaming won an allowance race at 9 furlongs before the Florida Derby.

[King Glorious]

Thanks for the info. You're right that there aren't a lot of such races but it seems like whenever there are, you get an inordinate amount of attention placed on the winners because it's assumed that because they won early at 9f, they will want more distance and be real factors in the Derby.

[Dahoss]

It’s not a great indicator of Derby winners but the 9 furlong dirt 2 year old races at Saratoga usually produce stakes winners.

[RolloTomasi]

Putting a "in the last 35 years" contingency renders your question almost entirely irrelevant as until now the only significant stakes for 3yos at 9f before the final round of preps in that time frame has been the Remsen and the hapless Jeff Ruby Steaks.

Furthermore, by restricting the query to Kentucky Derby winners only, you leave out all sorts of other Classic winners.

Be assured, when the Flamingo, Everglades, Florida Derby, Jim Beam, Hollywood Derby were run at 9f (or more) back when horses actually ran every 2 weeks there were plenty of Triple Crown race winners to come out of those races.

Lil E Tee and Animal Kingdom won the Jim Beam prior to their Derby victories.

In the time frame you set, Summer Squall, Hansel, Lil E Tee, Prairie Bayou, Snow Chief, Unbridled, Thunder Gulch, Monarchos, Empire Maker, Barbaro, Big Brown, Animal Kingdom, Go For Gin, Pine Bluff, Shackleford, Always Dreaming, Da' Tara, Drosselmeyer, Tonalist, and Orb were all early 9f winners that subsequently won Triple Crown races.