He was obviously worlds better than the horses in the field, but his first race back since the Belmont Stakes was going to show if the colt was holding his form from the spring.
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The brilliant colt could no longer exceed expectations; he could only win or be labeled a disappointment.
The excitement also produced a record handle for the race and for Haskell Day. “There was a lot of pressure coming in”. “He makes me emotional because he’s a gift from God”.
And so the summer of American Pharoah goes on, his legend building, everybody wanting to know where he will run next, before finishing up at the Breeders’ Cup on October. 31 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., everybody wanting to somehow share in genuine greatness, as if watching this horse run were akin to getting a chance to watch Babe Ruth hit. The winning time for the 1 1/8-mile race was 1:47.95 – 95th hundreds of a second off the Haskell record.
Crawford said Keen Ice ran his best race Sunday.
American Pharoah’s Haskell was as impressive as you could ever want a race to be, with Victor Espinoza idling through the stretch before hitting the wire 2 ¼ lengths in front of the late-running Keen Ice. And, the Pacific Classic is against older horses. He (Desormeaux) had no interest in the Haskell, he didnt want to meet him just yet, but I think his race impressed him and gave him some confidence.. But it was Competitive Edge who took the early lead. “It was pretty easy”. NYRA announced yesterday that the Travers purse would be enhanced by $600,000 to $1.6 million should he run at Saratoga. Installed as a 1-9 wager before the starting gates opened, American Pharoah lived up to his top billing.
“I thought this song was so flawless because over the years, I have been following the attempts of so many horses to take the illusive Triple Crown“, he said.
“We did this to honor the horse”, said Dennis Drazin, a management consultant to the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which owns Monmouth, at Thursday’s post position draw.
Zayat, who lives in Teaneck, said the decision where American Pharoah runs next will be made by Baffert. I wanted him sharp today because I knew the pace was going to be fast.
American Pharoah appears in the August issue of Vogue magazine. The North American breeding sheds are closed for the year, and American Pharoah would be doing a whole lot of nothing if he were retired.
The horses competed against each other in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. That move seems designed to deflect accusations that NYRA isn’t trying hard enough to get the horse.
Of the 11 other Triple Crown horses, 10 returned to racing after making history, and 7 of them won. Fans erupted the instant American Pharoah stepped onto a surface known to favor speed. His colors, turquoise and yellow, were everywhere.
“We’re just playing it race by race”, Baffert said. “We thought this was the right thing to do for Monmouth Park”.
American Pharoah won his eighth straight outing since running fifth in his first career race 51 weeks ago. Espinoza kept his horse in second until the far turn. This designation means the owners thought he was worth around that price, just a mere $99,980,000 less than Pharoah.
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“It’s very rare that I’m speechless”, said owner Ahmed Zayat. The incomparable Secretariat did it in 1973, with Seattle Slew successful in 1977.
