The William Hill Haskell Invitational is still 11 days away, but what’s already crystal clear is that people are exhausted of losing to American Pharoah.
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Pharoah is set to ship out Wednesday of race week, then return to Del Mar following the trip to Monmouth Park. Both were for fillies and mares, one an optional claiming event and the other a low-level claimer.
Or you can saddle up for the paddock one more time. There were three mile workouts at Del Mar Thursday, with the fastest coming from Yahoo Tahoe at 1:39 4/5.
“The track here is a little demanding”. “No excuses. He’ll be ready to go there”.
With the Zayat family in attendance, American Pharoah ran his drill easily, making up ground on a pair of workers in company, which initially looked out of reach. “We want to cap his racing career with something that’s never been done in the history of sports”, Zayat told me. “He gives me goose bumps”.
Listening to Paul Allen on the radio, a national football league football announcer as well as the voice of Canterbury Park in Minnesota, made me realize how unreal this Triple Crown victor was.
Really think about this next sentence you’re going to read. “He did it in hand and he’s fun to watch work”.
Prat, who has become the No. 1 rider for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, went into Thursday’s action atop the Del Mar standings with seven victories – two more than Joe Talamo and Santiago Gonzalez.
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“He’ll work another half before he leaves”, Baffert said. So far, only the connections for War Story, Tekton, Keen Ice, Mr. Jordan and Competitive Edge have stepped forward to announce they’ll take on the first Triple Crown victor in 37 years. American Pharoah is scheduled to make his first start since winning the Triple Crown in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Sunday, August 2.
