American Pharoah In Fine Form Day After Classic

American Pharoah was greeted by a large crowd of fans and media the morning after his Breeders' Cup Classic victory. (Photos by Melissa Bauer-Herzog)
The morning after American Pharoah won the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, becoming the first horse to win horse racing’s Grand Slam (the Triple Crown and Classic), trainer Bob Baffert admitted that up until three weeks ago the champion was slated to miss the race.
“For the first couple weeks [after the Travers Stakes loss], I didn’t think he was going to make the Breeders’ Cup. I really thought I wouldn’t feel good about it and still until three weeks ago, he wasn’t going to run in the Breeders’ Cup. He had to really show me something … I told Mr. Zayat ‘if he’s on that plane it means he’s doing really, really well.’ The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass the horse, that loss at Saratoga was really hard on me, I was mad at myself.”
But after Baffert got him to gain the weight he’d lost from a tough early season campaign and started gearing him back up for a possible run in the Classic, American Pharoah showed that he was ready. The colt put in two bullets [the fastest work of the day] leading up to the Classic at seven and six furlongs respectively, before an easier final work for the Classic saw him roll home in :46.60 over four furlongs for the second fastest work of that day.
“Once I got his weight back on … and then I started tightening the screws, I started jamming on him and once I started that he likes it. He likes to train and all of a sudden I just put a [seven furlong work] into him. I wanted to make sure he was prepared, I knew it was going to be a tough race,” Baffert said. “He was ready. He was ready for anything that was going to be thrown at him yesterday. He was going to go fast and just keep going fast.”
AMERICAN PHAROAH'S CAREER

Photos by Eclipse Sportswire
On Oct. 31 the colt led the Classic wire-to-wire with a new track record time of 2:00.07 for 1 ¼ miles at Keeneland Race Course, although that distance isn’t often run at the track. His 6 ½-length margin of victory tied for the largest margin of victory in the race’s history with the colt easily pulling away. Only about 15 hours after the race, Baffert said Pharoah looks like he could run again today.
“He came back in great shape. He’s ready to go again,” he said. “I feel so privileged that I got to train a horse like this then for him to put on a show yesterday. I knew about the half mile pole that the way he was running, he breaks other horses’ hearts. The good horses do that, they just break other horses’ hearts."
But the large crowd of fans and media that gathered around the Rice Road barn on Sunday won’t get to see Pharoah go to the gate again, or even ever set foot on a track again.
Zayat Stables’ racing manager Justin Zayat tweeted Sunday morning that the colt will be headed for Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, only a few miles down the road from Keeneland, early tomorrow morning. He will be joining the farm’s stallion roster for 2016 as one of four Breeders’ Cup race winners and the first Breeders’ Cup Classic victor at the farm.
Zayat has said that the farm is planning an event for fans to come see American Pharoah in his new home sometime in late November, however details have not yet been announced.