ELMONT, N.Y. - Unified did what he was expected to do Saturday - win the Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park. The question now is did he do enough to convince his connections to take a swing in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes in four weeks?
Showing the ability to sit off horses, Unified took a narrow advantage three furlongs from home, widened his lead in midstretch, and then had enough to hold off Governor Malibu and win the Peter Pan by three-quarters of a length.
Destin, the Tampa Bay Derby winner who finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby, will be pointed to the Belmont Stakes on June 11, trainer Todd Pletcher said Friday.
Pletcher said Destin appeared to have come out of the Derby in good order and has already resumed galloping at Belmont.
Meanwhile, Outwork, the Wood Memorial winner who finished 14th in the Kentucky Derby, will be pointed to the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on July 31.
What we all saw, heard, and felt a few minutes before 7 p.m. last Saturday was powerful, uplifting, and cathartic. It was a shared moment that anyone who was watching on television, and especially those at Belmont Park, will never forget.
Nothing can ever change that memory, not silly comparisons to Secretariat, not unnecessary historical perspective, not even a Beyer Speed Figure of 105.
The moment was enough, the absolute explosion in the grandstand, the American Pharoah curtain call wonderfully done by Victor Espinoza, the good feelings that linger still.
In November 1998, a horse named Time for a Prize untangled himself from a three-horse accident at Golden Gate Fields and bolted off the track and into the real world. He was finally cornered after heading the wrong way up an off-ramp of Interstate 580.
Thoroughbred racing jumped the rails in a big way last Saturday with the triumph of American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes. Suddenly, after 37 years of wondering which horse would be next, or if there ever would be another, the one thing everyone knew about horse racing was made flesh and blood once again.
The Triple Crown.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Frosted had moved into second leaving the five-sixteenths pole of Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, and for a moment, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin allowed himself to get excited.
“I was excited for three strides when we turned for home and pulled out, then I looked at the leader, and whoops, he’s just starting to go now,” McLaughlin said, referring to American Pharoah.
American Pharoah kept going right into the history books, his 5 1/2-length victory in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes enabling him to complete a Triple Crown sweep, the first since Affirmed in 1978.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After winning the Triple Crown, what can a horse do for an encore? It is a question that has not been asked for 37 years, but as with most of the 11 who preceded him, American Pharoah will get a chance to further cement his legacy with a post-Triple Crown campaign before he goes off to stud.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Marlow, assistant to trainer Bob Baffert, was home from a full day’s work when American Pharoah walked into the starting gate for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday. Marlow, who heads the stable’s division at Los Alamitos, was settled in his living room, anxious to see if American Pharoah could sweep the Triple Crown.
As a dozen horses since 1978 tried to win the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown, racing purists have harbored mixed feelings about some of these bids. It would be almost a sacrilege for a less-than-great horse to have his name inscribed on the list of Triple Crown winners that includes some of the sport’s immortals.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though there was a predictable drop in handle, Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, for the most part, was logistically, aesthetically, and historically a success for the New York Racing Association, officials said.
There were far fewer complaints from fans who attended Saturday’s Belmont Stakes – where American Pharoah became Thoroughbred racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner – than there were last year, when concessionaires ran out of food, wifi and cellular service was poor, and fans were stranded for hours trying to leave the grounds.
