Broadening Understanding of Pharoah’s Impact at Longines Awards

American Pharoah's owner Ahmed Zayat (right) chats with Felix and Jilly Cooper and other guests at the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities' Longines World's Best Racehorse Award Ceremony in London. (All photos courtesy of Longines World's Best Racehorse Awards, unless otherwise noted)
American Pharoah is the most celebrated horse in the United States in a generation. Now that he has been crowned the World’s Best Racehorse by Longines and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorites, does this mean he is also being celebrated across the globe?
This is the question that was on my mind as I flew to London as Longines’ guest to the World’s Best Racehorse and World’s Best Horse Race Awards. I wanted to know just how big the American Pharaoh phenomenon had grown.
I started to get a sense of it as soon as I got in the cab at the airport. My driver, after inquiring why I was in town, was immediately excited.
“I love horse racing,” he proclaimed. “I take my family to the racetrack all the time.”
Ah! My first conversation with a Londoner and already I had met a racing fan. I wasn’t too surprised. I’ve always assumed that horse racing was more popular in the UK than in the United States. The presence of royalty and dignitaries at the Cheltenham Festival or the Royal Ascot meeting seemed to confirm it. Now, my first few hours in London and I’m batting a thousand on meeting horse racing fans.
I asked my driver if he had ever seen American Pharoah run before. He first wanted to clarify who American Pharoah was:
“That’s the one that won the Kentucky Darby?”
That’s not a typo. That’s just how he and pretty much everyone else over there say derby. After regaling me with stories of his family attending everything from the Royal Ascot to the White Derby in the Swiss Alps, he asked me if I had ever been to the “Kentucky Darby.” I told him that I had, a few times. He was impressed.
“It looks like so much fun. I’ve never seen so many people at a horse race before. My wife and I talk about it every time we go to the states on holiday.”
His family had visited the United States three times in the last 10 years. “But it’s never during a month we are there. It’s a pity. I’d love to see one before I die.”
I didn’t know what threw me for more of a loop: that this random person I met in London had the Kentucky Derby on his bucket list or that a cab driver (who refused a tip, natch) could afford to vacation overseas with his family every other year. I like this country so far.
The ceremony for the World’s Best Racehorse was held at Claridge’s Hotel, an ancient and elegant hotel filled with history. They sometimes call it the “annex to Buckingham Palace,” because it has so often played host to noblepersons and magistrates.
STAGE FOR AWARD CEREMONY

This day in some respects was no different. In addition to the heads of horse racing federations from all over the world there were world-famous jockeys and trainers, phenomenally wealthy owners and breeders, and media from places as far away as Japan and Australia.
The World’s Best Racehorse Award has been presented each year since 2003 to the horse that earns the highest rating in the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities ranking system. This year the highest rating, 134, belonged to American Pharoah, who would be the first American horse to win the honor since Curlin tied for it in 2008.
WORLD'S BEST RACEHORSE TROPHY

The World’s Best Racehorse Award typically goes to horses that not only aren’t bred in the United States, but often don’t even race in America at all. Past winners have come from France, Australia, even Japan. They are horses with lots of competitive and elite races under their belts, racing literally dozens of races over their short careers. They race across Europe, in Hong Kong, or as far away as Dubai.
Rarely have any of them even set foot on American soil, which makes it even more remarkable that American Pharoah would win the title, being relatively lightly raced and without ever racing outside of the United States. It was an honor that American Pharoah truly deserved, and not just because he accomplished the much-ballyhooed Triple Crown. The Longines World’s Best Racehorse rankings are fairly objective and take into consideration not just a horse’s wins and final times, but also the strength of the competition that the horse defeated in each race.
The race that put American Pharoah over the top to win the honor this year was not the Kentucky Derby, America’s most-celebrated race, where he bested a giant field of 20. Nor was it the Belmont Stakes, where American Pharoah made history and brought 100,000 fans at the track to literal tears. No, it was the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where Pharoah’s 6½- length victory earned him his highest rating in the rankings, because he defeated seven horses, some of whom were older, and each of whom had at least one Grade or Group 1 victory under his belt.
AMERICAN PHAROAH WINNING BREEDERS' CUP CLASSIC

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
His final rating of 134 was good enough to beat an incredibly talented field this year that included European Horse of the Year Golden Horn, who was the runner up with 130. It also would have been enough to win the honor last year, when Japan’s Just a Way scored a 130 to beat all comers. But interestingly enough, the 134 was still not even the best number put up by an American racehorse. That number would be Cigar’s 135 in 1995, his 5-year-old season, and the year that Cigar also won the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The conclusion I drew from this was that while 3-year-old racing during the Triple Crown season is popular with fans in the United States, it wasn’t as impressive to handicappers and horse racing fans around the globe when crunching the numbers.
It all made me feel a little self-conscious. I confessed to Francis Keogh, my tablemate at the ceremony and a horse racing writer and reporter for BBC, that I was afraid that despite our great champion American Pharoah receiving much-deserved accolades from the international community, that the rest of the world looked down on our racing scene.
Keogh told me not to worry. From his perspective, nobody was looking down on American horse racing. In fact, they weren’t looking at American horse racing at all.
“I think for most fans in the UK, they watch the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup, and that’s it,” Keogh said, and for good reason. This was a sport typically watched live, by both bettors and non-gambling fans alike, and so the time difference makes it very challenging. But it's also because every country’s racing fans have so much on their hands, just in that country, that it’s maybe too much to ask them to watch it all.
I had to admit that was true of myself. Aside from perhaps who wins at Royal Ascot or the Arc de Triomphe or who ships over here for big races, I rarely know much about what’s happening around the world in the sport.
All of this is very likely because, according to Juan-Carlos Capelli, the vice president of Longines, “we don’t have a true global tour of horse racing.”
The Longines World’s Best Racehorse Award was an attempt to rectify just that problem.
“We created this award in partnership with IFHA to recognize that it is a worldwide sport,” Capelli said.
TEAM AMERICAN PHAROAH HONORED AT WORLD'S BEST RACEHORSE CEREMONY

It certainly seemed to make sense. International consensus regarding rankings and the acknowledgement of a “world champion” is important in other global sports like boxing. A true international professional tour is what has opened up borders and broadened global competition in sports like cycling, golf and tennis. While having an award for the World’s Best Racehorse may not necessarily make it more likely that horses will ship around the world to run against each other, it could lead to an increased interest around the world among the racing public about what is happening in other countries.
Already there is some evidence of this. There was a large contingent of Japanese media and racing officials at the ceremony for American Pharoah, despite the fact that there were no Japanese horses in contention this year.
Ahmed Zayat, owner of American Pharoah, upon meeting the connections of runner-up Golden Horn, was taken aback when they told him what fans they were of American Pharoah.
“This is the horse of a lifetime,” they told him.
JUSTIN, JOANNE AND AHMED ZAYAT

I asked Zayat if it was unusual to hear from fans in other countries about American Pharoah, and he told me that he has never experienced the level of international interest in a horse like he has with this horse, especially given Pharoah has never raced outside of the U.S.
“In Switzerland, in London, in Germany, in Arab countries, wherever I go we are instantly recognized and people will come and say ‘Go, Pharoah, Go!’ ” Zayat said. “Obviously, this horse has touched the hearts of people internationally, which makes me proud as an American.”
After the Zayat family, trainer Bob Baffert's family (including son Bode, all dressed up in his Kentucky Derby-best), and Victor Espinoza took the stage to accept their award, everyone in the room raised their glasses of champagne to toast American Pharoah.
JILL, BODE AND BOB BAFFERT

I took out my phone to snap a photo of the moment and noticed a news alert on my screen that the British Parliament was debating whether or not to ban Donald Trump from their country. My first instinct was to cringe in embarrassment. Whatever does the world think of us, I wondered. Then I looked up at the stage at my countrymen and the embarrassment faded. I lifted my glass, so proud I was of all of them.