{"id":8563,"date":"2018-04-27T13:11:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/?p=8563"},"modified":"2018-04-27T13:11:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:11:34","slug":"a-120-beyer-for-american-pharoah-and-thank-you-champ-for-explaining-to-many-why-we-love-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/a-120-beyer-for-american-pharoah-and-thank-you-champ-for-explaining-to-many-why-we-love-horse-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Years On. Remembering The Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champ, American Pharoah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"APZayat1\"<\/a>By Carl Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is hard to believe for this writer that almost three years have gone by since\u00a0the countdown to American Pharoah’s 2015 Kentucky Derby. Since then we have had the likes of Beholder, California Chrome, Arrogate, Songbird and Gun Runner grace us with their wonderful presence. But there was, and only ever will be, one American Pharoah.<\/p>\n

In a powerhouse performance on\u00a0Halloween 2015, Triple Crown winner American Pharoah spectacularly bowed out from the amazing show he had put on for racing fans the world over. \u00a0In\u00a0the process of running his rivals ragged\u00a0in the Breeders Cup Classic he earned a worthy 120 Beyer speed figure. A number that\u00a0he could easily have surely earned several times before, if he had ever been asked.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0major part of Bob Baffert and Victor Espinoza’s smart management of their superstar\u00a0that year included the preservation policy of never doing much more than necessary to win\u00a0his previous races. (Anyone who watched\u00a0the Haskell at Monmouth Park saw the most obvious example of that.) While\u00a0this was a wise long term plan that paid off, it also meant that the “numbers boys” were regularly\u00a0disappointed with\u00a0the “not too shabby but not superstar” Beyer speed figures American Pharoah’s victories produced.\u00a0The trolls’, knockers’ and doubters’ fires were thus\u00a0fueled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Personally I felt early on that American Pharoah was probably one of the greatest\u00a0horses I had ever seen, but not because of his race results. Or his Beyer speed figures of course.\u00a0I was confident\u00a0he had plenty more in reserve and was far better than those\u00a0numbers showed.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to get the idea that this horse might be extra special. Rather than\u00a0waiting to break his duck in a Maiden allowance, Bob Baffert\u00a0chose to go directly\u00a0to a Grade 1 contest\u00a0with\u00a0him as a maiden\u00a0two year old. American Pharoah won that 2014 Del Mar Futurity with facile authority, but what continued to feed me the sense that I was observing\u00a0a highly unusual creature was the way he carried and used\u00a0his\u00a0rare and spectacular mechanical equine frame. That awesome stride. That balance. That way he simply floated\u00a0across the ground. All surrounded and\u00a0complemented by\u00a0an extremely generous, kind and intelligent puppy dog demeanor. And of course – a ton of Heart.<\/p>\n

\"apstall\"<\/a>We have heard plenty of horses hyped by their connections over the years. But when Bob Baffert, who has trained more Grade 1 Stakes horses than most trainers on the planet, made statements early on that he had “never had one like this before” they\u00a0were made\u00a0in a manner\u00a0that seemed more sincere and heartfelt than that\u00a0stallion building rhetoric often spouted by the connections of many good, but not great, racehorses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Convinced\u00a0that we were just seeing the tip of the American Pharoah iceberg,\u00a0I marked up and factored in 10\u00a0or more\u00a0extra Beyer points for the ease of several of his wins. Even\u00a0his Breeders Cup\u00a0Classic winning Beyer figure of 120 could no doubt have been higher\u00a0if\u00a0the champ had been pressured late. As a stronger and more mature four or five year old, potentially record breaking Beyers\u00a0north of 125-130 could surely have been achieved. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AmericanPharoahAt-Barn\"<\/a>Sadly we never saw that happen. You were retired from racing at just three years old Pharoah. Like many, I rue an economic situation in thoroughbred racing that dictates that stars like you can earn\u00a0far more in the breeding shed than they can on the racetrack. I am disappointed that you were\u00a0gone from our racetracks\u00a0so soon Champ. I am disappointed that we\u00a0never got the chance to see you carry all before you and become an even bigger legend as a four and five year old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But three years on, I\u00a0remain hugely grateful for what you achieved, and for what you\u00a0did for our amazing and beautiful sport.<\/p>\n

Thank you for explaining to a lot of people who didn’t previously “get it” why so many of us do “get it.”<\/p>\n

Thank you for showing and shouting from the rooftops exactly why so many of us are passionate about\u00a0horse racing, for reasons far above and beyond anything to do with a betting window.<\/p>\n

Thank you for illustrating how for many of us, horse racing has so often personified and paralleled the ups and downs, the hopes and fears,\u00a0the\u00a0emotions, twists and turns that run through the journeys of our lives.<\/p>\n

\"AP#\"<\/a>Your presence was a journey of hopes and dreams. Of belief, faith, romance and love. Of endeavor, achievement, satisfaction and happiness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thank You, American Pharoah.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"APZayat1\"It is hard to believe for this writer that almost three years have gone by since\u00a0the countdown to American Pharoah’s 2015 Kentucky Derby. Since then we have had the likes of Beholder, California Chrome, Arrogate, Songbird and Gun Runner grace us with their presence. But there was, and only ever will be, one American Pharoah.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whats-happening","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}