Pharoah Getting Well Deserved Vacation After Triple Crown Sweep

American Pharoah shortly after arriving at Churchill Downs on Sunday. (Photos by Melissa Bauer-Herzog)
By Tom Pedulla, America’s Best Racing
ELMONT, N.Y. – Belmont Park turned into an early-morning petting zoo on Sunday as trainer Bob Baffert allowed visitors to his barn to get up close and personal with American Pharoah, the long-awaited Triple Crown champion.
The colt that raced into immortality the day before with a resounding 5 ½-length triumph in the Belmont Stakes that made him the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont handled clicking cameras and scores of new friends the way he does everything else. He took it in stride.
American Pharoah then jetted back to Churchill Downs, where a police escort waited to accompany him to the famed track. He will be given a well-deserved rest. Owner Ahmed Zayat and trainer Bob Baffert made it clear that the sweet-striding colt will call the shots from here concerning his next start.
“He’ll tell me,” Baffert said. “He lightened up on us a little bit.”
Zayat vowed to showcase the horse as often as possible while protecting him through the end of this season, which figures to be his last before he heads to the breeding shed in behalf of Coolmore. “It’s a huge, huge honor and a privilege,” Zayat said of his rise to the top of the sport. “We want to do the right thing.”
The son of Pioneerof the Nile faced a particularly tough road to the Triple Crown, which is comprised of three races in five weeks. Because Baffert chose the Arkansas Derby as his prep race for the Kentucky Derby, it presented the youngster with four races in eight weeks. The horse never flinched.
AMERICAN PHAROAH UNLOADING FROM THE VAN AT CHURCHILL DOWNS

Baffert said of American Pharoah’s two sharp pre-Belmont workouts at Churchill Downs: “The breezes before he got here, it was sick. He hadn’t lost anything. He still had his fastball.”
Baffert secured the Triple Crown on his fourth attempt after missing with Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998) and War Emblem (2002).  Zayat said of Baffert’s finest hour in a Hall of Fame career, “Bob was an unbelievable caretaker.”
American Pharoah ended a 37-year drought that was the longest in Triple Crown history. Sir Barton was the first to complete the remarkable sweep, in 1919. The feat had been so elusive that there were calls for change by those who argued that the modern horse lacked the breeding to rebound fast enough after races at taxing distances.
“For a while, I was starting to believe it was never going to happen,” Baffert said. “It’s not the breed. You have to have a superior horse come around, and they don’t come around often.”
American Pharoah’s place among racing’s pantheon of stars is secure. He displayed tremendous heart in edging away by one determined length in the Kentucky Derby. He adapted to horrendous conditions to roll in the Preakness by seven lengths on a Pimlico Race Course track turned into a quagmire by a pre-race downpour. He disproved his naysayers by outrunning his pedigree in a Belmont that left no doubts about his superiority. The only question as he powered down the stretch, accompanied by a wall of sound, was the decisiveness of the final margin.
The Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., might well be the site of American Pharoah’s next start. Saratoga Race Course and Del Mar also were mentioned by Baffert. Monmouth, though, should suit the horse’s front running style and Baffert has enjoyed a string of successes there. The goal will be the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.
“That would be the ultimate ending, to win the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” said Justin Zayat, racing manager for Zayat Stables.