American Pharoah (foaled February 2, 2012) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the American Triple Crown in 2015. He is bred and owned by Ahmed Zayat of Zayat Stables, LLC, trained by Bob Baffert and ridden in most of his races by Victor Espinoza. He is the first American Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 and only the twelfth in history.
After running poorly in his track debut, he was undefeated thereafter. As a two-year-old, he won the Grade I Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes, each by several lengths. An injury kept him out of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, but the strength of his two wins nonetheless resulted in his being voted American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse at the 2014 Eclipse Awards.
American Pharoah began his 2015 campaign with wins in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby and went on to win both the 2015 Kentucky Derby and 2015 Preakness Stakes. He won the Triple Crown in a wire-to-wire victory at the Belmont Stakes. Before the season began, Zayat had sold breeding rights to the colt to the Ashford Stud in Kentucky, a division of Ireland's Coolmore Stud. He retained control over the colt and his racing career, however, as well as an undisclosed dividend on stud fees. As of June 2015, the colt will likely run a few more races leading up to the Breeders' Cup Classic, and then American Pharoah is expected to be retired from racing at the end of 2015.
American Pharoah is a bay colt with a faint star on his forehead and no other white markings. He was bred in Kentucky by his owner, Ahmed Zayat, CEO of Zayat Stables, LLC, and foaled at 11 p.m. on Groundhog Day, 2012, at Stockplace Farm near Winchester, Kentucky. He has sometimes been described as a ridgling, rather than a colt, meaning that he had an undescended testicle. He is from the second crop of foals sired by Zayat's stallion Pioneerof the Nile, who finished second in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. The stallion's first crop included Holy Bull Stakes winner Cairo Prince and Social Inclusion, who finished third in the 2014 Preakness Stakes.
American Pharoah's dam, Littleprincessemma, raced but did not win either of her two starts in 2008. American Pharoah was her second foal, following allowance race winner Xixixi. Another full sibling to American Pharoah, a filly born in Zayat Stables in 2014, is as yet unnamed. Littleprincessemma was purchased by Zayat in 2007 for $250,000 and was sold—again in foal to Pioneerof the Nile—in November 2014 for $2.1 million.
In August 2013, American Pharoah, then a yearling, was consigned by the Taylor Made Sales Agency to the Fasig-Tipton sale and was officially bought for the posted minimum of $300,000 by Ingordo Bloodstock, acting as an agent for Zayat, who in effect bought back his own horse. Zayat had pledged that he would not sell the promising but untested colt for less than $1 million. Zayat similarly bought back Pioneerof the Nile, American Pharoah's sire, for $290,000 in a 2007 yearling auction. "We felt that he had brilliance in him," said Zayat, "his demeanor, his aura, his conformation, the way he moved.” Following the auction, American Pharoah was sent into training with Hall of Fame inductee Bob Baffert in the spring of 2014.
American Pharoah is set apart from other race horses by his smooth and distinctively long stride. Baffert has stated, "I've never had a horse that moves or travels over the ground like he does." The most unusual characteristic of American Pharoah during his two- and three-year-old seasons is his short tail. It was apparently chewed off by another horse. It is theorized that Mr. Z, a fellow competitor and Zayat-bred colt, may have been the culprit; the pair were kept together in Florida as younger horses. Trainer Baffert had a more colorful theory: "I think he was in the pasture one day and there was a mountain lion chasing him—that was the closest he could get...."
Another distinctive trait of American Pharoah is a gentle demeanor. He is fond of people and surprisingly calm around them for a young racehorse. As trainer Baffert explained, "Horses of his caliber are not that nice and sweet. They're just sort of tough. If I brought Bayern out here, you can't get near him, he's too aggressive. [American Pharoah]'s just so different than any horse I've ever had." He was not always so calm, described initially as "a little bit of a headcase," but Baffert explained that after his anxiety-ridden first race, people worked with him, schooling him in the track paddock for about two weeks, when "all the sudden he got really sweet and really mellow."
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