Pharoah Could Race Again After Travers Loss

American Pharoah coming back to be unsaddled after finishing second in the Travers Stakes. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
By Tom Pedulla, America’s Best Racing
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, responding to comments by owner Ahmed Zayat that suggested American Pharoah will most likely be retired, kept alive the possibility that the first Triple Crown champion in 37 years might produce one last hurrah.
“Yeah, he could come back and freshen up and run,” Baffert said on Sunday morning, the day after Keen Ice blew past a weary Pharoah by three-quarters of a length in the mile-and-a-quarter Travers Stakes.
This was the same Keen Ice that Pharoah toyed with in the mile-and-an-eighth William Hill Haskell Invitational on Aug. 2 at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park. Regular rider Victor Espinoza stopped urging the 12th Triple Crown champion well before the wire and still prevailed by 2 ¼ lengths.
The stunning reversal led Ahmed Zayat, Pharoah’s owner, to suggest on several occasions in a post-Travers news conference that the next move will likely be to retire the colt.
“My gut is saying if the horse tailed off from the American Pharoah we know, no question we will retire him,” he said. “He doesn’t owe us anything.”
At another point, Zayat said that if the brilliant 3-year-old is even one percent off his game “the show is over.”
Baffert, after displaying the fresh-looking colt to the media and a smattering of fans outside Barn 25  the day after the “Mid-Summer Derby,” downplayed Zayat’s comments.
“Mr. Zayat is an emotional man,” he said. “We were all pretty disappointed. We were surprised he got beat. We weren’t really prepared for a losing speech.”
AMERICAN PHAROAH GALLOPING IN FRONT OF FANS ON FRIDAY

Photo by NYRA/Coglinese Photos
American Pharoah is scheduled to leave Saratoga Race Course on Monday at 6:30 a.m. to make an approximately 12-hour journey to his home base at Del Mar. “We’ll get him back there and let him chill,” Baffert said. “He needs to chill.”
Perhaps everyone does. Zayat, who wears his emotions on his sleeve, was surely talking in the heat of the moment. Few suspected that Pharoah was ripe for an upset, even if Saratoga Race Course is infamous as the “Graveyard of Champions.” The bay son of Pioneerof the Nile rode into town with a police escort from Albany International Airport and an eight-race winning streak that included seven Grade 1 triumphs.
But nothing went as expected. Baffert noted that Jose Lezcano, an emergency replacement aboard Frosted after Joel Rosario was injured, kept relentless pressure on Pharoah in a strategy he described as “odd.”
“It probably cost them both,” he said.
A jockey is expected to give his mount the best opportunity to win, and not to be on a mission to defeat one particular horse. It was highly unlikely that Frosted could best Pharoah in a speed duel – and he did not.
More than anything, Baffert suspected his champion, for all of the fight he displayed, had nothing left in deep stretch due to a rigorous travel schedule. Competing in the Haskell and Travers required two cross-country treks in less than one month.
“The trip coming back here took a little starch out of him,” Baffert said.
During his time in front of the crowd this morning, the colt eagerly consumed some carrots and did not look at all haggard. If he doesn’t retire, he would have ample time to recuperate and gear up for the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.
Although there was a big part of Baffert that wanted to follow the Haskell with the Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 19 to increase the space between trips and starts, he praised Zayat for his sportsmanship in sending Pharoah to this hotbed of racing in order to showcase him.
An estimated 18,000 fans watched Pharoah gallop on Friday morning. The crowd was capped at 50,000 for the Travers. The centerpiece of Saratoga’s summer meet sold out on Aug. 14 even though it was unclear whether racing’s superstar would be coming.
“It was actually one of the most positive losses I’ve ever seen,” Baffert said.