American Pharoah calmly greets adoring fans

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The qualities that set American Pharoah apart from any racehorse Bob Baffert has ever trained were on full display in a little more than 12 hours here at Keeneland, for on Sunday morning, the day after he obliterated his rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, American Pharoah came out to greet at adoring public at Barn 62, taking it in with a calmness that was in stark contrast to the speed and power he had unleashed in the race.

After arriving at the barn, freshly fueled with breakfast at Waffle House, Baffert spoke to assistant Jim Barnes, then members of the Zayat family – which owns and bred American Pharoah – and a score of visitors hanging around American Pharoah’s barn, taking about 15 minutes in all.

Outside the barn, a crowd of about 200 media members and fans gathered, waiting for Baffert. It was time to do a meet-and-greet, but not alone.

“Got to show him to the people,” Baffert said as he walked back toward American Pharoah’s stall.

He grabbed a shank and took American Pharoah a half-lap around the shed row, then out into the open area between Barns 62 and 64. An audible gasp went up from the crowd, and they rushed towards American Pharoah, at first forming a wide circle. And then Baffert invited everyone to come closer, and they did, with Baffert saying to Justin Zayat, racing manager for his father, Ahmed, that it reminded him of the chaotic scene in the winner’s circle after the Belmont Stakes.

Both after the Belmont and again on Sunday, American Pharoah handled the adulation more like a laid-back surfer than a racehorse. He stayed outside for more than 10 minutes, as everyone got a good look at him, before going back to his stall.

“For him, it’s easy. He’s Mr. Chill,” Baffert said later. “What he did I can’t do with other horses. He’s so special. That’s why I’ve been able to share him with everybody.

“War Emblem,” Baffert said, referring to the third of his four Kentucky Derby winners, “he’d have put people in the hospital with broken ribs.”

On Saturday afternoon, American Pharoah concluded his racing career with a runaway victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic that produced the highest Beyer Speed Figure of his career, a 120.

“He crushed them,” Barnes said.

“He went out in style,” Ahmed Zayat said.

“He put on a show yesterday. I was hoping for that,” Baffert said. “I was crying turning for home.

“It’s so emotional. I think of my parents,” said Baffert, who has lost both his parents in the past five years. “It’s totally different. Very spiritual. He came along at a time when all the experience I’ve had with horses really helped.”

Baffert called on all his training skill to get American Pharoah ready for the Classic. American Pharoah was a tired horse after his loss in the Travers, and Baffert initially had to go slowly with American Pharoah. His first few works were good, but lacked some of the brilliance he had shown earlier in the year.

“The first couple of weeks, I was thinking we were going to miss the Breeders’ Cup,” Baffert said Sunday. “The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass the horse. The loss at Saratoga was really hard on me.”

But American Pharoah began to respond “once he got the weight back on, and I tightened the screws,” Baffert said.

American Pharoah’s last three works were dazzling. After American Pharoah went faster than Baffert had intended in his final work five days before the race, Martin Garcia, who regularly worked the 3-year-old superstar, told Baffert, “that was impossible. I would have broken his teeth.”

“He likes to train,” Baffert said. “He was ready for anything thrown at him yesterday.”

Now American Pharoah will get ready to begin his next chapter, as a stallion at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud 11 miles west of Keeneland. American Pharoah is scheduled to leave Keeneland for the farm on Monday morning. There have been preliminary discussions with Churchill Downs about feting American Pharoah there later this month, but nothing was close to being finalized.

Baffert thinks American Pharoah will easily handle the process of being let down from racing.

“He’s a big puppy dog,” he said.

Baffert knows he’ll never have another horse like American Pharoah. He will try to replace him, but knows a horse who was the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Haskell, and Breeders’ Cup Classic in the same year, will be a two-time divisional champion, and this year’s Horse of the Year, is irreplaceable.

American Pharoah knew how to compete on the racetrack, and how to behave off the track.

He is, Baffert said Sunday, “the perfect racehorse.”