NEW YORK — By mid-stretch, Bob Baffert knew it. American Pharoah was going to win the Triple Crown. ADVERTISING NEW YORK — By mid-stretch, Bob Baffert knew it. American Pharoah was going to win the Triple Crown. He took his
NEW YORK — By mid-stretch, Bob Baffert knew it. American Pharoah was going to win the Triple Crown.
He took his eyes off the horse to soak in the crazed scene of the packed grandstand. Fans jumped up and down, hugged, and tossed drinks in the air.
The race wasn’t even over yet, and the crowd knew it, too. Thirty-seven years of waiting to see one of the rarest feats in sports was almost over.
“The crowd was just thundering and I was just enjoying the crowd and the noise and everything happening,” the white-haired trainer said. “What a feeling.”
Finally, a Triple Crown winner. And this one was never in doubt.
American Pharoah led all the way to win the Belmont Stakes by 5 ½ lengths on Saturday, becoming the first horse since 1978 to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — one of the sporting world’s rarest feats.
“Wow! Wow!” jockey Victor Espinoza said moments after crossing the finish line. “I can only tell you it is just an amazing thing.”
The bay colt with the unusually short tail easily defeated seven rivals in the grueling 1 1/2-mile race, covering the distance in 2:26.65 — sixth-fastest in Belmont history — to end the longest stretch without a Triple Crown champion in history.
“That little horse, he deserved it,” said Baffert, who at 62 is the second-oldest trainer of a Triple Crown winner. “He’s the one that did it. We were basically just passengers.”
American Pharoah is the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to win three races on different tracks at varying distances over a five-week span. He won the Derby by one length on May 2 and then romped to a seven-length victory in the rainy Preakness two weeks later before demolishing his rivals Saturday.
Baffert and Espinoza ended their own frustrating histories in the Triple Crown. Baffert finally won on his record fourth Triple try, having lost in 1997, 1998 (by a nose) and in 2002. Espinoza got it done with his record third shot after failing to win in 2002 and last year on California Chrome.
“I was prepared for somebody coming because I’ve been through this so many times,” Baffert said.
Nobody did.
“It’s just an amazing feeling that you have when you’re 20 yards from the wire,” Espinoza said. “And then at the wire I was like, ‘I cannot believe I did it.’”
