As American Pharoah rounded the final turn in his quest for history in the Belmont Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park on Saturday, June 6, America held its collective breadth as Frosted began to make his move to try and catch the race leader.
Then, it happened. It was a subtle move by American Pharoah's jockey, Victor Espinoza, but it was all that was needed to secure the win.
Espinoza loosened his grip on American Pharoah's reins, and the horse did the rest. He raised his head, he lengthened his stride, and he began to fly down the Belmont stretch. And, with each step he took, he continued to widen his lead on the field, as the cheers from the crowd began to get louder and louder.
Then, with the cheers bellowing from the crowd, American Pharoah not only crossed the finish line with a 5-1/2 length win over Frosted in the Belmont Stakes, but he stepped into the history books as the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 37 years.
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| American Pharoah, with jockey Victor Espinoza riding, won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 6, and captured the first Triple Crown in 37 years. (Photo by Jessie Holmes/EquiSportPhotos.com) |
"Wow, wow, I only can tell you," said Espinoza, who finally won the Triple Crown after losing it in the Belmont with War Emblem in 2002 and California Chrome last year. "It's just an amazing thing. It's just unbelievable how things work out. It's just an amazing horse like American Pharoah. I was coming to this race with so much confidence the last two times. It's just unbelievable.
Added winning trainer Bob Baffert, "It's very emotional. What a feeling. It's probably going to take a few days to sink in. … All I did was just take in the crowd. The crowd was just thundering and I was just enjoying the crowd and the noise and everything happening.
"We knew we had the horse. We hoped we had the horse. Once Victor got him in the clear and got him into that beautiful mode of the way he just goes over the ground, I just loved every fraction. I saw 1:13 and change; I loved that. I was talking to (my wife,) Jill, the whole way around there and turning for home, I was preparing for somebody coming because I've been through this so many times. I was just hoping for once and I could tell at the eighth pole that it was going to happen."
For Baffert, the fourth time was the charm in his quest for a Triple Crown. He had been on the threshold of winning it three times before – in 1997 with Silver Charm, in 1998 with Real Quiet and in 2002 with War Emblem – but each time, he lost in the Belmont Stakes. This time, he finally got the win.
American Pharoah, whose last name was misspelled following a naming contest held by the horse's owners at Zayat Stables, ran the 1-1/2-mile race in 2:26.65. Even more impressive, he set faster fractions at almost every checkpoint along the way. He opened in 24.77, and then went 24.58, 24.58, 24.34 and then 24.32 as he crossed the finish line.
In the race, he exited the gate a step slow, but that was about the only flaw (if you could call it that) he had the entire race, as Espinoza took him straight to the lead and by the first turn he was ahead by a length over Materiality
"He walked into the gate amazing," said Espinoza. "He was ready today. As soon as I sat in the saddle, there was so much power and so much energy this horse had. He trained perfect, just unbelievable coming into the race."
As he went around the first turn, Espinoza settled his horse and they continued to lead the race down the backstretch and into the final turn, with the field following closely behind in the hopes he would tire.
As they rounded the final turn and headed into the home stretch, Frosted began to close the gap and it looked like he might catch up to American Pharoah. But, that never happened, because that is when Espinoza began to loosen his hold on the reins and let American Pharoah take flight.
As they continued down the stretch, the cheers became deafening, as American Pharoah widened his lead on the horses behind him and finally stepped across the finish line a 5-1/2-length victor.
"It was a beautiful moment," said Baffert in an interview on Sunday morning. "I'll' never forget the sound of the crowd. When he turned for home, and even past the wire, people were just ... they erupted. I've never been involved in anything like that."
To make the day more special, Baffert and Espinoza announced they were making large donations to some charities.
Baffert said he was going to donate $50,000 to four equine charities, including Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm in Georgetown, where two of his former horses now reside – Game on Dude and Silver Charm, the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner.
"I want to share this, I want to make sure that those horses that we really love – we have to take care of them," said Baffert."Win, lose, or draw, I was going to do it."
Espinoza donated his entire winnings to a charity he's been involved with for a number of years: City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment facility located in Duarte, Calif.
One other thing that should make this win even more special to people living in Kentucky's Woodford County and the surrounding area, are the number of connections American Pharoah has to the area.
His sire is Pioneerof the Nile stands at WinStar Farm in Versailles, and his dam, Littleprincessemma, is at Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown. (His full pedigree is Pioneerof the Nile-Littleprincessemma, by Yankee Gentleman.)
In fact, Littleprincessemma recently gave birth to a full brother to American Pharoah. His name is Irish Pharaoh – and this time, the name was spelled correctly.
When his race career comes to an end, which will, hopefully, be in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday, Oct. 31, at Keeneland, American Pharoah will stand at Coolmore Ashford Stud in Versailles.
To date, American Pharoah now has seven wins in eight starts and has earned $4,530,300.
As to his future, this Saturday, American Pharoah will be paraded in the Churchill Downs paddock prior to the Stephen Foster Handicap. He will then be flown back to California, Baffert's home base, where tentative plans are to race him one or two more times before the Breeders' Cup.
Such races as the Jim Dandy Stake at Saratoga on Aug. 1, the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 2, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 22 and the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 29, have been mentioned, but no definite plans have been made yet.
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Information gathered from EquiBase.com, PedigreeQuery.com, NYRA.com, BloodHorse.com.
This article also appeared in The Woodford Sun, Thursday, June 11, 2015.
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