Jerardi: American Pharoah just keeps peaking

When Point Given won the first of Bob Baffert’s seven Haskells in 2001, the trainer knew the big horse was not at his best. Point Given had won the Preakness by 2 1/4 and the Belmont Stakes by 12 1/4, so the trainer took it easy that June and July.

“He was not ready to run in the Haskell,’’ Baffert said. “I gave him a couple little works.’’

Baffert is taking no chances with his Triple Crown winner. He has worked American Pharoah hard and often. AP will be ready.

Point Given won by a half-length in the Haskell. The over/under on American Pharoah’s margin of victory should be around five lengths. The over looks promising.

The Triple Crown winner is not only a terrific horse; he is also a kind, relaxed horse who wastes no energy between races. American Pharoah saves his energy for his races.

War Emblem, the third of the Baffert-trained Triple Crown wannabes who did not win the Belmont, was different.

“War Emblem was a savage,’’ Baffert said. “He was the most hateful horse I’ve ever been around, but he could run.’’

Yes, he could. War Emblem won the Haskell by 3 1/2 lengths, but he was one-dimensional. He needed the lead.

All of American Pharoah’s wins except one have been blowouts, but he does not appear to be one-dimensional. His Kentucky Derby is the outlier, the race that he was all out to win. Could the close finish have been because the horse had to sit off the pace behind two very good horses? Possibly.

I think it more likely that he wasn’t quite ready physically after missing so much training time and having two very casual wins in Arkansas. That he became a bit unnerved in the Derby hoopla did not help. The Derby, however, got to him to peak fitness and set AP up for the romps in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

“Every time I’ve ever had a really good horse, I always say, ‘I’ll never have another one like that,’ ’’ Baffert said.

This time, that statement is almost certainly true.

This is now race by race to the finish line. Any race could be the last race. If something goes wrong, it’s over.

So far in 2015, nothing has gone wrong.

Baffert was recently talking with Richard Mandella, who watches American Pharoah train every day. Mandella told Baffert it was amazing how the horse has held up.

“He’s different, you know,’’ Baffert said. “He sustains his form like no other horse I’ve had.’’

The Belmont postscript was fascinating on so many levels. The immediate human reaction was euphoric. Really, who didn’t want to see a Triple Crown?

The other reaction was that nobody was whining about anything, not about the winner or the way the race was run, nothing.

“You never heard a jockey or a trainer after the race say, ‘He got it his own way, nobody went with him,’ ’’ Baffert said. “They were all like, ‘Wow, we were part of something big.’ ’’

They were. We all were.

It will never be as big as the Triple Crown, but the fun from here to the American Pharoah finale, whenever and wherever that is, will be to find out just how good this colt might be.

Three-year-olds often improve dramatically in the fall. California Chrome’s lifetime-best Beyer Speed Figure was earned in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic. And remember that Chrome was taken out of training following the Belmont, so it took him quite a while to get even close to his spring form. Pharoah has been training right along, and Baffert definitely is not coddling the Triple Crown winner.

It would be hard for American Pharoah to be any more dominant than he was at Pimlico or Belmont. Given the monsoon, it is still hard to put the Preakness into any rational context. Remember that Pharoah ran away from a very good horse in the stretch at Belmont Park. In fact, Baffert told me how good Frosted looked in the paddock that day.

As I pointed out in a post-Belmont column, it was almost impossible for Pharoah to put up a giant Beyer figure because the fractions were so slow on such a fast surface.

I would like to see a race where American Pharoah lays down really hot fractions or attends such fractions. Then, we might see how fast this horse really can run. We could even see that Sunday at Monmouth Park.