For American Pharoah, Retirement or Redemption?, Neither American Pharoah nor his trainer, Bob Baffert, looked worn out or deflated the morning after the colt was run down by Keen Ice in the final strides of the 146th running of the Travers Stakes. The white-haired Baffert smiled as he led his big bay colt outside his barn here, stopping to let a little girl feed him carrots.American Pharoah, the Triple Crown champion, stomped his foot once and then twice in appreciation. He was a happy horse. Baffert, a Hall of Fame trainer — well, he was disappointed but satisfied with his colt’s gritty performance on Saturday. He also made it clear that he wanted American Pharoah to race one last time, on Oct. 31 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
“He was valiant in defeat,” Baffert said Sunday. “If he would have stopped running and finished fifth or sixth, you would have scraped me off the track. I would have been so mad at myself. You begin to feel like they’re invincible, and you forget they all get beat.”They all do get beat at horse racing’s highest levels. The Triple Crown champions Gallant Fox, Secretariat and Affirmed were humbled here at Saratoga Race Course, one of the sport’s most historic tracks. Another, Seattle Slew, was undefeated when he swept the Triple Crown races in 1977 but was a well-beaten fourth in his next start, the Swaps, at Hollywood Park in California.
The great mare Zenyatta took a 19-0 record into her final start, at the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic, only to come up a head short. Only Personal Ensign, another great mare, managed to retire with a perfect 13-0 record at the sport’s elite level; she punctuated a spectacular career by capturing the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in her final start, in 1988.That is also how American Pharoah should be allowed to say farewell to the racetrack before taking up his stallion duties at Ashford Stud in central Kentucky: taking on the best older horses in the world and having the opportunity to prove he is a horse for the ages.
The colt’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, did the sport a great service by sending American Pharoah to Saratoga, a racetrack where history matters and the horseplayers who overfill it each summer appreciate these magnificent creatures. The atmosphere here was electric all week, and the sight of more than 15,000 people at the racetrack Friday morning for American Pharoah’s workout showed that a great horse was indeed good for the soul of a battered sport.
“No regrets,” Baffert said. “I’m glad we brought him.”
American Pharoah has also energized the most casual sports fans: The overnight rating for NBC’s broadcast of the Travers was up 102 percent from last year, and the audience — more than 1.5 million viewers — was nearly triple the network’s average for its Premier League soccer telecasts.
American Pharoah may have been beaten, but he hardly embarrassed himself, and the applause that greeted him as he was led off the racetrack Saturday evening was a testament to the awe and the respect he has stirred in horse lovers.
The colt was clearly not at his peak, but he had plenty of chances to wilt from a long, harassing, flank-to-flank challenge thrown down by the jockey Jose Lezcano, aboard Frosted. Instead, when his rival put a head in front of American Pharoah, the colt dug in and blew by him. Still, it took the starch out of American Pharoah, who did not have enough left to hold off the fast-closing Keen Ice.
There was nothing dirty about Lezcano’s tactics.
“I found the ride a little bit odd, and it probably did both of them in, but that’s horse racing,” Baffert said. “If you can’t beat him one way, try another. We almost did it.”
In fact, after sleeping on it, Baffert called it the most “positive loss” of his career. He knows disappointment. Before American Pharoah, horses that he trained came up just short of sweeping the Triple Crown races three previous times, most heartbreakingly in 1998, when Real Quiet missed it by a nostril.
American Pharoah, of course, belongs to Zayat, and what is next for the colt is up to him. But Baffert said Sunday morning that American Pharoah had not tailed off at all and that he had a plan: get the colt home to California for a couple of weeks of rest and then train him up for the Breeders’ Cup Classic for a final and potentially history-making race.
“I could do it,” Baffert said.
So can American Pharoah. He deserves that chance.
“He was valiant in defeat,” Baffert said Sunday. “If he would have stopped running and finished fifth or sixth, you would have scraped me off the track. I would have been so mad at myself. You begin to feel like they’re invincible, and you forget they all get beat.”They all do get beat at horse racing’s highest levels. The Triple Crown champions Gallant Fox, Secretariat and Affirmed were humbled here at Saratoga Race Course, one of the sport’s most historic tracks. Another, Seattle Slew, was undefeated when he swept the Triple Crown races in 1977 but was a well-beaten fourth in his next start, the Swaps, at Hollywood Park in California.
The great mare Zenyatta took a 19-0 record into her final start, at the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic, only to come up a head short. Only Personal Ensign, another great mare, managed to retire with a perfect 13-0 record at the sport’s elite level; she punctuated a spectacular career by capturing the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in her final start, in 1988.That is also how American Pharoah should be allowed to say farewell to the racetrack before taking up his stallion duties at Ashford Stud in central Kentucky: taking on the best older horses in the world and having the opportunity to prove he is a horse for the ages.
The colt’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, did the sport a great service by sending American Pharoah to Saratoga, a racetrack where history matters and the horseplayers who overfill it each summer appreciate these magnificent creatures. The atmosphere here was electric all week, and the sight of more than 15,000 people at the racetrack Friday morning for American Pharoah’s workout showed that a great horse was indeed good for the soul of a battered sport.
“No regrets,” Baffert said. “I’m glad we brought him.”
American Pharoah has also energized the most casual sports fans: The overnight rating for NBC’s broadcast of the Travers was up 102 percent from last year, and the audience — more than 1.5 million viewers — was nearly triple the network’s average for its Premier League soccer telecasts.
American Pharoah may have been beaten, but he hardly embarrassed himself, and the applause that greeted him as he was led off the racetrack Saturday evening was a testament to the awe and the respect he has stirred in horse lovers.
The colt was clearly not at his peak, but he had plenty of chances to wilt from a long, harassing, flank-to-flank challenge thrown down by the jockey Jose Lezcano, aboard Frosted. Instead, when his rival put a head in front of American Pharoah, the colt dug in and blew by him. Still, it took the starch out of American Pharoah, who did not have enough left to hold off the fast-closing Keen Ice.
There was nothing dirty about Lezcano’s tactics.
“I found the ride a little bit odd, and it probably did both of them in, but that’s horse racing,” Baffert said. “If you can’t beat him one way, try another. We almost did it.”
In fact, after sleeping on it, Baffert called it the most “positive loss” of his career. He knows disappointment. Before American Pharoah, horses that he trained came up just short of sweeping the Triple Crown races three previous times, most heartbreakingly in 1998, when Real Quiet missed it by a nostril.
American Pharoah, of course, belongs to Zayat, and what is next for the colt is up to him. But Baffert said Sunday morning that American Pharoah had not tailed off at all and that he had a plan: get the colt home to California for a couple of weeks of rest and then train him up for the Breeders’ Cup Classic for a final and potentially history-making race.
“I could do it,” Baffert said.
So can American Pharoah. He deserves that chance.
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