by Joe Drape
Keeping American Pharoah on the racetrack, however, allowed Zayat to cash more win checks and collect more appearance fees to offset the fact that he left money on the table by selling the stallion rights so early. He had plenty of suitors in racetrack executives who were swooning at the mere thought of the colt circling their oval before a full house. The belief was that American Pharoah would increase attendance, lift the amount wagered on the track’s races, and provide untold publicity.
Seven days after American Pharoah won the Belmont, for example, more than 30,000 showed up at Churchill Downs just to watch the colt be paraded between races. They oohed and aahed and snapped photos.
“Oh my God!” one woman yelled from the crowd. “It’s gorgeous.”
The following morning, Cecil Seaman visited American Pharoah outside Barn 33 at Churchill Downs. He took his tape measure out and began stretching and wrapping around various parts of the colt’s body—fifteen specific measurements in all—as he has done for more than 108,000 Thoroughbreds, including the previous four Triple Crown champions, over forty-five years. It had already been established that American Pharoah’s stride reached 26 feet and he could cover approximately 55 feet per second. Seaman, a bloodstock consultant, had developed a system to evaluate the biomechanics of Thoroughbreds. Among his comprehensive database were the measurements of 850 champions, 2,000 G1 winners, 750 earners of at least $1 million, 50 Kentucky Derby victors, and more than 25 winners each of the Epsom Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Seaman was hardly surprised that American Pharoah graded out A+ in his system alongside 447 other horses—or less than half of one percent of all he has measured. He was taller and had a longer body than Affirmed, Seattle Slew, and Secretariat. Seaman found him more aerodynamic than three previous Triple Crown champions as well as most of the other horses in his top tier. American Pharoah’s biomechanics were optimally suited for distances from one mile to a mile and three-quarters. He had already proved that he could run on dirt, but Seaman thought he could also be successful racing on turf.
What did surprise Seaman, however, was American Pharoah’s bright mind and serene nature. As he wrapped his tape around his girth, the colt turned and looked curiously at what Seaman was doing. He then swung his head to Dr. William McGee, at ninety-eight the oldest living equine veterinarian, who was in a wheelchair in front of him feeding him carrots.
“Here’s this champion and he acts like the kindest old riding horse,” Seaman said.
American Pharoah proved it when Seattle Slew’s jockey, Jean Cruguet, got on his back. He was there, too. Cruguet swung his seventy-six-year-old frame onto the colt’s back and simply marveled: Slew was high-strung and would have never allowed a stranger on his back.
Zayat had picked the William Hill Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on August 2 for the return of American Pharoah. It was a Grade 1 race, and the track was on the Jersey Shore in his home state. Zayat had negotiated a $2 million bonus from Coolmore if American Pharoah won there, another $2 million for winning the Grade 1 Travers Stakes in Saratoga, and $4 million for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Besides offering a $1 million purse, Monmouth gave $25,000 to the owner and the trainer of the winner of each Triple Crown race. That meant Zayat and Baffert were each guaranteed $75,000. There was also very little risk that American Pharoah would lose. The Haskell should be renamed the Bob Baffert Invitational because his horses had appeared in it eleven times, won seven, finished second three times, and third once. It was an easy spot because the trainers of the better East Coast three-year-olds were aiming to capture the Travers and preferred to prep their horses in the Jim Dandy Stakes in Saratoga, which ran the day before the Haskell.
Monmouth was not alone in looking to attract racing’s biggest star, whose presence would increase attendance and help lift the amount wagered on the track’s races, and put them on the map as a destination for horse people. Canterbury Park offered to move its Mystic Lake Derby from the turf to the dirt, where American Pharoah is more comfortable, and provide a $2 million purse if Pharoah would go to Shakopee, Minnesota. Executives at Parx Racing near Philadelphia had a more lucrative bonus structure in place than Monmouth: $50,000 each for the winning owner and trainer of a Triple Crown race, guaranteeing Zayat and Baffert $150,000 each to show up for the Pennsylvania Derby. Plus, it was willing to raise its $1 million purse. New York, too, was trying to come up with extra purse money for the $1 million Travers to attract American Pharoah.
While Zayat sifted through racetrack deals, Baffert tried to restore some order to his barn and American Pharoah’s routine. The colt had returned to California in the middle of June, transforming barn 5 into the center ring of what was becoming a circus. Friends, fans, and strangers stopped by at all hours to get a look at the Triple Crown champ. Baffert and his staff were accommodating, at first perhaps too accommodating, but now the trainer was eager to shut down the “petting zoo” and get American Pharoah back to work. The colt was losing weight and was acting more anxious. Baffert agreed to parade him at Santa Anita on Saturday, June 27, but afterward the colt was put on lockdown.
So two days after more than 21,000 people showed up to show their appreciation for American Pharoah, the colt returned to the racetrack with Martin Garcia aboard after a brief twenty-three-day vacation. As soon as Baffert saw American Pharoah get into stride for a three-eighths-of-a-mile breeze, he knew he had done right by his horse, something that he was having a hard time articulating to people who asked him, “Hasn’t the colt done enough?” In a testament to how popular American Pharoah had become, Baffert found himself answering that question a lot, most recently on a flight and from Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, the comedy duo that pioneered and built an audience out of marijuana-based humor. They had watched the race, fallen for the horse, and asked why not quit while he’s ahead.
“He’s happiest when he is on the racetrack,” Baffert explained. “He loves to run. He loves to train. There’s no guarantee where he’s going to run next because he has to tell me, ‘Hey, I’m ready; I’m sitting on gold.’ As long as he’s sitting on gold, he’ll run.
“If I see something in the morning—he doesn’t want to train—then you won’t see him in the races. As long as he’s doing well, you’re going to see Pharoah.”
One month later, after his sixth workout in the past thirty days, Baffert declared American Pharoah fit and ready for the forty-eighth running of the William Hill Haskell Invitational.
“I think he’s getting faster,” Baffert said. “He gives me goose bumps.”
The day before American Pharoah was scheduled to leave Del Mar, a group of parents with their kids showed up at the barn asking if they could get a look at the colt. Jimmy Barnes told them no; he was getting good at playing the bad cop. Somehow, however, they persuaded Baffert to bring him out for a photo. Barnes waited for them to leave before scolding Baffert.
“Ridiculous,” said Jimmy.
“No, it’s a good omen,” replied Baffert. “One of them was named Haskell.”
Shortly after Air Horse One, as the 727 American Pharoah shared with other horses is known, touched down at the Atlantic City Airport, Monmouth officials announced that they were increasing the purse for their marquee race to $1.75 million. They denied it was a quid pro quo but acknowledged that Zayat and Baffert were aware that the pot would be sweetened for them if they, indeed, brought American Pharoah east from California. They were not finished, either. The racetrack promised to create a $1 million race for American Pharoah in September on the date and at the distance Baffert specified.
Even though second place was now worth $330,000 and third $150,000, only six horses signed on to face American Pharoah. None of them were in the colt’s league, but that is not why a record crowd of 60,983 showed up to revel in the sunshine and sea air. American Pharoah was becoming a full-blown phenomenon. When he stepped onto the track to the full-throated strains of the Haskell anthem, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” there
was a roar that rivaled the one that he received winning the Belmont.
It scared Baffert. He started his day the same way he had on his eleven previous trips here for the Haskell—by having lunch at Max’s Famous Hot Dogs in nearby West Long Branch, a ninety-nine-year-old landmark whose walls had signed photos from Frankie Valli and Joe Pesci and the Boss. He wolfed down a classic Max’s with mustard, ketchup, and relish. He didn’t anticipate being this anxious, but Baffert took his role as the protector of American Pharoah’s legacy seriously. He did not want to get his horse beat, especially not here by far lesser horses. It had been fifty-seven days since the Belmont, and Baffert had given the colt seven stout timed workouts since his Belmont victory, each more breathtaking than the last. However, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed had all managed to get beat.
“Every time we run him and work him, he keeps showing he’s getting faster and stronger,” Baffert said, reassuring himself.
Still, Baffert’s stomach churned throughout a long day spent mostly extricating himself from one mob of well-wishers to the next. He has long been one of the most recognizable figures in horse racing, but now he was a Triple Crown–winning trainer. While the Zayats entertained more than one hundred friends and neighbors in a banquet room high above the track, Baffert signed autographs and posed for pictures. In the paddock, Victor Espinoza could tell the trainer was on edge.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Looks like you got him even bigger and stronger.”
After saddling American Pharoah, Baffert barely made it back to his seat in time to see the start of the race. As soon as American Pharoah broke from the gate, however, Baffert’s anxiety gave way to awe. Mike Smith aboard Competitive Edge had gotten the jump on American Pharoah and shot out to the lead. Smith’s colt had won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at two and the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile earlier in the year, but Espinoza knew the horse had never been more than a mile and was far more comfortable sprinting at shorter distances.
So he sat on American Pharoah as relaxed as if he were on a Sunday trail ride as they tracked one length behind Competitive Edge around the first turn and into the second. When Smith looked over and saw Espinoza still on his flank after going three-quarters of a mile in a rapid 1:09.60 seconds, he knew he was running for second-place money. American Pharoah was running like the 1-to-5 favorite and Triple Crown champion that he was.
“He was on me, and he was on me, loaded,” Smith said. “I was in a full drive and he was galloping, man.”
American Pharoah blew by without Espinoza even asking him. He let the colt slingshot around the far turn and then Espinoza peeked beneath one shoulder, glanced over the other, then narrowed his eyes between his colt’s ears and stared down the stretch. The colt’s ears were wiggling. They hit the stretch with a five-length lead, and Espinoza powered American Pharoah down to preserve his brilliance for another day. As they loped home, behind them a horse named Keen Ice was running full throttle but barely making up ground.
“No one can keep up with a horse this fast,” Espinoza said.
The two-and-a-quarter-length victory brought a triumphant end to a lucrative day for Zayat Stables. It earned them a $1.05 million first-place check, lifting American Pharoah’s career earnings to more than $5.5 million as well as a $2 million kicker from Coolmore. Plus, the $75,000 Monmouth paid Zayat and Baffert for making the trip.
Afterward, all anyone wanted to know was where American Pharoah was going to run next. Justin and Ahmed Zayat were pushing for the Travers Stakes in twenty-seven days. The New York Racing Association announced that it would raise the purse to $1.6 million if American Pharoah ran in the Midsummer Derby. Baffert, however, insisted he was taking American Pharoah’s schedule one race at a time. He was taking the colt back to California, where he would assess his fitness and attitude before deciding where he went next.
“He was on my schedule for the Triple Crown, but now I’m on his,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is embarrass the horse.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE GRAVEYARD OF CHAMPIONS
August 29, 2015
They take their Midsummer Derby seriously here in Saratoga Springs, New York. So shortly after noon on Sunday, August 23, 2015, when Larry Collmus excitedly announced to racegoers at the nation’s oldest racetrack, “Yes, he’s coming—he’ll be here at the Spa,” they knew exactly what he was talking about: American Pharoah would be here the following Saturday for the 146th running of the Travers Stakes. The news was met with sustained applause and high fives being exchanged along the apron of the racetrack and throughout its bucolic backyard. It ended a rumor-filled week of expectation, in which supposed sure signs that Pharoah’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, intended to run him here (he booked a block of hotel rooms) and that Baffert had finally agreed (he had a seat on a private jet) did battle with the natural pessimism of horseplayers.
Why would Baffert take his prized colt to a racetrack that he has shown little fondness for, a track that has earned the nickname of the Graveyard of Champions over its storied 150-plus years? It was here, after all, that the Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox was beaten by 100-to-1 Jim Dandy in the 1930 Travers and another Triple Crown champion, Secretariat, was defeated in the 1973 Whitney by a horse named Onion. Don’t forget Affirmed, either. He came here for the Travers and beat his fierce rival Alydar at the wire but was disqualified for interference on the grandstand turn. It was a hollow victory for the connections of Alydar, who finished second to Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races, but it only enhanced the unforgiving reputation of this racetrack.
Besides, Baffert had made no secret that he found the track surface here deep and demanding. He had started five horses in the Travers, winning only once, with Point Given in 2001. A month earlier that same year, Baffert and Gary Stevens had brought a colt named Congaree here as the heavy favorite for the Jim Dandy Stakes. Congaree had finished third in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and had won the Grade 1 Swap Stakes in California the previous month. Baffert was shocked when the colt stopped running in the stretch and was passed by a 12-to-1 long shot named Scorpion. On their flight the following day to New Jersey, where Point Given was running in the Haskell, Baffert swore to Stevens that he would never bring a horse to Saratoga unless he was certain it was ten lengths better than the rest of the field.
Whether or not American Pharoah was ten lengths better than his rivals would be determined within a week. Ahmed and Justin Zayat had been vocal all summer about wanting to race the Triple Crown champ here at the nation’s premier meet. The $850,000 first-place check and the $2 million kicker from Coolmore were powerful motivators as well. Baffert was feeling the pressure. He had preferred a more prudent route to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, one that took them to the outskirts of Philadelphia in mid-September to compete in the Pennsylvania Derby. The spacing was better for training American Pharoah—seven weeks after the Haskell and six weeks leading into the Classic. Parx, the track, was connected to a casino and Zayat and Baffert had been assured that the $1 million purse would be raised in addition to the $150,000 each was promised for showing up. He was looking for a reason to scuttle the trip to New York.
Instead, earlier that morning at his summer home in Del Mar, California, American Pharoah threw down another sizzling workout that the trainer could not ignore. The colt rolled through seven-eighths of a mile in 1:23.20 and punctuated the drill by blowing past another trainer’s horses, which had started their workouts well ahead of American Pharoah. It was enough to convince Baffert.
“If you have a seat at Saratoga, I wouldn’t sell it,” he said.
No one did. New York Racing officials once more capped the crowd, this time at 50,000 people due to Saratoga’s smaller grounds. As a consolation, however, Zayat and Baffert allowed them to advertise a public gallop on the day before the race. At Monmouth, more than 5,000 had come. Baffert knew there would be a lot more than that in New York.
“I feel like I’m bringing The Beatles to town,” Baffert said.
He was and it was apparent as soon as American Pharoah stepped feistily off the airplane in nearby Albany, New York, on the Wednesday before the race. The colt stopped on the Jetway, as if it were a model’s runway, so the gaggle of photographers could get their shots. In winning eight straight races over the previous year, American Pharoah had been a road warrior. He had traveled 18,750 miles to run on seven different racetracks, and this was his second coast-to-coast trip in twenty-four days. Horses were not supposed to be able to log miles like that without wearing down, and despite his outward confidence, Baffert worried that they had shipped American Pharoah too far and too much.
Saratoga was just damn glad he was here. The colt had been the talk of the taverns that surround Saratoga Race Course as well as the tonier restaurants off Broadway, its main drag. That American Pharoah was here for the 146th running of the Travers Stakes was almost too good to be true.
“We have never seen a horse like this” is how the discussions usually began, to the soundtrack of ice tinkling the sides of tumblers and the clink of wineglasses.
This was the Vatican of horse racing, after all, and American Pharoah was being treated like the pope by horse lovers and like the heavyweight champion of the world by horseplayers. These two worlds coexist in a sport that can be both beautiful and brutal. The colt was already the 1-to-5 morning-line favorite for the Midsummer Derby on Saturday. The horse lovers were pulling for another exquisite performance from the colt. The gamblers? They were going to bet on Texas Red, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, or Frosted, the Belmont runner-up, in pursuit of a financial score.
On Friday morning, the two factions sat side by side—more than 15,000 strong—to watch American Pharoah circle the racetrack. They came from Boston and Los Angeles, Atlanta and Cincinnati, and places in between, all to see the Big Horse, a title long thrown around lightly but now deservedly worn by American Pharoah.