I work American Pharoah in the morning and he's a real good horse."Īmerican Pharoah, a bay Kentucky-bred, paid $7.80 to win, $5.80 to place and $4.20 to show. “We just got beat by better horses,” Garcia said. The massive Dortmund weakened in the final furlong, keeping Baffert from becoming the first trainer to finish 1-2 in the Kentucky Derby since Ben Jones in 1948 with Citation and Coaltown.
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With Espinoza aggressively riding to the wire, American Pharoah toured 1 1/ 4 miles in 2:03.02. He put a long neck in front of my horse and he fought back. “… We put Dortmund away and I heard Victor. When he hit another gear, so did my horse. “I purposely came four wide to stay away from Dortmund, but he engaged me anyways,” said Stevens, who last year underwent a total knee replacement. That’s because from their prior encounters, Stevens knew Dortmund enjoyed a brawl. Gary Stevens, the 52-year-old Hall of Famer, pulled Firing Line to the outside, closer to American Pharoah. With Firing Line between Dortmund and American Pharoah, the horses came down the top of the stretch three across the track.
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On his flank was a familiar rival in Firing Line, who twice lost photo finishes to Dortmund before leaving Santa Anita for a dominating victory in the Sunland Derby.Įspinoza had American Pharoah in third, with dead aim on the leaders, a couple lengths back to their outside, encouraging the colt to go after Dortmund and Firing Line on the far turn. That left Dortmund and jockey Martin Garcia to take control through a legitimate but comfortable early pace of 23.24 seconds for the first quarter-mile and 47.24 seconds for the half-mile. 3 post and was completely taken out of his game of being close to the lead. One reason surely was that the previously unbeaten Florida Derby winner Materiality broke tardily from his No. There appeared to be considerable speed in the field of 18, which was reduced to the smallest since 2004 after the scratches of the Zayat-owned El Kabeir and International Star, both reportedly because of bruised feet.īut, as is often the case when it looks like it will be a strong pace, that didn’t develop. “Is this a dream right now? And I finally woke up.”
#AMERICAN PHARAOH KENTUCKY DERBY FULL#
“After the race, I actually started throwing up because I was full of emotions,” said the 23-year-old Justin, his family’s racing manager who will graduate from New York University in a week. I’m asking (son Justin), ‘Who got second? Who got third?’ ” … I still cannot believe it - no finishing second or third. I knew that, if he had the lead, nobody would catch him. For the first time I am seeing him right now working, working hard. “Finally, no more seconds,” Zayat said, while watching a replay.
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Beyer did estimate a figure for Secretariat’s 31-length victory in the Belmont at 139.While Espinoza and Baffert are veterans of being in the Derby winner’s circle, it was Ahmed Zayat and his family’s first time after finishing second with their previous three starters. That would probably translate to a Beyer Figure in the mid 120s. Beyer would have to go back in time to 1973 to calculate Secretariat, but the Triple Crown winner still holds the record for the Derby at 1:59 2/5. That’s the exact same figure he ran when winning the Arkansas Derby.īeyer said the average winning figure of the Derby is 108. That also allows you to compare horses that have been competing at different distances.īeyer has calculated American Pharoah’s final time of 2:03.02 in the Kentucky Derby as 105. You make that determination by comparing the final times of a given race day with the average times that horses are expected to run given their classification - that is, the stakes horses run faster than the ones in the first race.īy assigning a whole number to the final time, you can compile the average speed of a racetrack on a given day. By that, he means a racetrack can be in a certain condition that allows horses to run above-average times or below-average times.