No Routine Gallop: American Pharoah Energizes Saratoga Fans

An estimated crowd of 18,000 flooded Saratoga Race Course on Friday morning just to watch Triple Crown winner American Pharoah gallop in preparation for the Travers Stakes on Saturday. (Photo by Adam Coglianese/NYRA)
By Tom Pedulla, America’s Best Racing
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a bucolic town that treasures the past, in a spectacle that evoked memories of eras gone by, Triple Crown champion American Pharoah thrilled an estimated 18,000 spectators merely by galloping on Friday morning.
Trainer Bob Baffert looked on approvingly as he saw fans pressing against the trackside fence, lined five deep with children perched on shoulders, for a peek at the first horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 37 years.
“It’s fun to have a horse like this. People really appreciate him,” Baffert said after the sport’s long-awaited superstar unofficially covered 1 1/4 miles in 2:24. “His racing is good news.”
Christopher Kay, head of the New York Racing Association, told the crowd, “It’s Christmas here at Saratoga in August.”
AMERICAN PHAROAH GALLOPS AT SARATOGA

The special event was arranged to accommodate those unable to purchase tickets for the $1.6-million Travers Stakes on Saturday since attendance was capped at 50,000. The race was sold out by Aug. 14, well before it was clear that Pharoah would journey here from the West Coast.
The magnificence of the 12th Triple Crown winner brought tears to many an eye. Susanne Kott of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., was among those who welled up. She had attended every Belmont Stakes since watching Seattle Slew complete the Triple Crown sweep in 1977 only to be forced to remain at home with a stomach virus this year.
As she saw it, she was making up for lost time when she left her home at 5 a.m. ET on Friday so that her daughter, Andria, could assist her by making the two-hour drive here. Susanne was overcome by emotion when she first glimpsed Pharoah.
“Yeah, I got tears,” she said. “It’s exciting. It’s history.”
Andria found Pharoah as compelling a figure as her mother did.
“I want to hug him,” she said longingly, “but I don’t think that will happen.”
Said Susanne: “I want to kiss him.”
AMERICAN PHAROAH

Photo by Adam Coglianese/NYRA
Lauren Roberts of Edinburg, N.Y., pushed a double stroller that contained her son, Dane, 5, and her daughter, Mackenzie, 3.
“I want the kids to be able to say some day that they saw American Pharoah, one of the Triple Crown winners,” she said.
Roberts did her best to explain to the children that this was not just another horse, hoping that young, eager minds might grasp some of what she told them.
“I tried to tell them how special the Triple Crown is,” she said. “It hadn’t happened in my lifetime, and they think I’m old.”
The children absorbed at least some of the magical moment.
“Who did we come to see?” the mother asked.
“American Pharoah,” Mackenzie answered deliberately, working to pronounce the words properly.
Cathy Allen of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., delighted in Pharoah’s every stride.
“He’s such a fluid, smooth, calm horse,” she said. “Seeing him live is pretty cool because you don’t know when the next horse is going to come that can win the Triple Crown.”
According to Allen, the colt who ended the longest drought in Triple Crown history brought out the best in a community that, for generations, staunchly supported racing. Saratoga Race Course is revered as one of the grandest venues in all of sports, albeit one that is known as the “Graveyard of Champions” because of the track's history of stunning upsets.
“You feel everybody is a neighbor right now. Everybody is on the same page,” Allen said. “Everybody you talk to hopes he wins. We don’t want to be the graveyard of American Pharoah.”
That appears unlikely. Baffert thought Pharoah handled the deep track well on a morning filled with hope for a sport that has recaptured national attention. The Hall of Fame trainer was still awed by the scene as fans pocketed the cellphones they used to take pictures and slowly made their way toward the exits, buzzing about what they had observed.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Baffert said. “But Pharoah, this is what he brings with him.”
AMERICAN PHAROAH SARATOGA SLIDESHOW