American Pharoah

[y66]

From At Long Last, a Kentucky Derby Only About the Horses:

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This is an altogether different Kentucky Derby. It hasn’t been hijacked by bombastic owners. There has been no need to manufacture story lines. No, for the first time since I have been coming here, the horses are the genuine stars and there is a sense that the 141st running of America’s signature race is going to be one for the ages.

 

Much of it has to do with the two colts trained by Bob Baffert, American Pharoah and Dortmund. All week, horsemen and -women have been trekking to his barn as if it were the Louvre to take a look at what they consider to be the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo of a deep and talented crop of 3-year-olds.

 

These are hard boots who know that even the great horses lose, and who declare it often, but they have fallen like schoolboys for American Pharoah, the 5-2 morning-line favorite. The loquacious D. Wayne Lukas, 79, a trainer who has won four of these things, usually is the first to tamp down high hopes by grumbling, “Don’t bronze him yet.”

 

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American Pharoah was last year’s 2-year-old champion and has won four of his five races. Credit Rob Carr/Getty Images

 

But Lukas has predicted American Pharoah will sweep the Triple Crown.

 

“He’s special,” Lukas, who will saddle Mr. Z, said.

 

American Pharoah was last year’s 2-year-old champion and has won four of his five races in effortless fashion. But it is the way the colt has floated like a cloud around this racetrack each morning that has burnished him with an aura of invincibility.

 

“He is a notch above everybody — he glides along so easily, like there isn’t any effort,” said Elliott Walden, president and chief executive of WinStar Farm, which is an owner of Carpe Diem.

 

His colt has also won four of his five starts, and $1.5 million in purses. Like American Pharoah, Carpe Diem has decimated the fields he has faced. Unlike the favorite, Carpe Diem is a son of Giant’s Causeway and bred to go the mile and a quarter.

 

“In any of the last 10 years, we would be the favorite,” Walden said. Instead, Carpe Diem is the third betting choice at a generous 8-1.

[Winstonm]

From At Long Last, a Kentucky Derby Only About the Horses:

 

I don't understand horse racing. When I was young, it seemed like a triple crown winner came along often - Secretariat, Affirmed... Now, it sounds like this horse has been cursed with the "special" label. I'm not hopeful. :angry: :blink: :ph34r: <_< <_<

[onoway]

Well one down two to go. The 1970s were remarkable with the three triple crown winners but it was something like 25 years between Citation and Secretariat.

[y66]

Still going strong ...

 

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American Pharoah notched his eighth straight victory at the Haskell Invitational on Sunday.

Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times

 

Whole lotta horse.

[Winstonm]

 

Whole lotta horse.

 

Led Stallion?

[y66]

Pharwell Pharoah!

 

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The jockey Victor Espinoza and American Pharoah after winning the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday. Credit Richard Mackson/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

 

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The remarkable racing career of American Pharoah came full circle on Saturday when the Triple Crown champion won the final race of his career in the state where he was born, and will now take immediate retirement.