If the Kentucky Derby Saturday, May 7 has you nostalgic for American Pharoah, Joe Drape has the antidote.
The New York Times sportswriter and Eclipse Award winner for outstanding coverage of Thoroughbred racing is off and running with the new “American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner’s Legendary Rise” (Hachette Books, 292 pages, $27). Though it may lack the juiciness, pathos and laugh-out-loud humor of “Duel for the Crown: Affirmed, Alydar, and Racing’s Greatest Rivalry,” it, too, is a great story well-told with a fabulous cast of characters supporting our innocent, noble hero, AP, on his equine Pilgrim’s Progress. ...
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Read MoreWhile American Pharoah is busy making babies, our old friend California Chrome is busy winning races.
CC – who won the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness – earned the richest prize in horse racing, taking the $6-million Dubai World Cup on March 26. The win makes him the all-time moneymaker at $12.4 million. (And he could add to that by entering January’s $12 million Pegasus Championship, which would alternate between the Santa Anita and Gulfstream parks.)
But the real winner here may be Victor Espinoza, who rode the Pharoah, of course, and rides CC as well. ...
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Read MoreDays before Valentine’s Day – Feb. 12 to be exact – American Pharoah had his first date with a mare named Untouched Talent at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky.
"I am thrilled. The mare that is in heat and ovulating is the dam of Bodemeister, a stallion I raced and own," American Pharoah's owner Ahmed Zayat said. "Very excited. Can't wait for little Pharos.”
If all goes well, the first of them will be born 11 months from now. Meanwhile, American Pharoah has taken to his new occupation the way he once took to the track.
“They just told me the first time that they brought him for what they call a test breeding, he was just like he was on the racetrack,” Zayat said. “A champion.”
Indeed, AP seems to be the best kind of performer – competitive enough to be a winner but not so competitive to be difficult off the track. ...
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Read MoreAmerican Pharoah is a gift from God – our own Pegasus, our own wingéd spirit. So when I received an invitation to hear Victor Espinoza speak at Steiner Sports Marketing in New Rochelle, N.Y. on Aug. 3 – well, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
The “Triple Crown Celebration With Victor Espinoza” was a revelation both for what we amateurs learned about horses and horse racing and the frankness with which Espinoza discussed these subjects.
Looking natty in a gray suit and sky-blue tie, the Mexican-born Espinoza – who guided American Pharoah to the first Triple Crown in 37 years, then capped it with a resounding win in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 2 – was both humble and humorous as he reflected on a career of more than 3,000 victories. (He doesn’t know the exact number.) He had been to the Triple Crown dance before – aboard War Emblem, with AP trainer Bob Baffert in 2002; and then with California Chrome just last year. Or so Fox 5 New York sportscaster Tina Cervasio – the evening’s expert interviewer – reminded him. ...
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Read MoreIt’s official: American Pharoah’s next race will be the $1 million William Hill Haskell Invitational Aug. 2 at Monmouth Park on the Jersey Shore.
“We want to do right by him, so he comes first," owner Ahmed Zayat, himself a Jersey Boy (by way of Teaneck), said. "He's told us he's happy. He's gained weight back. He's been paraded, literally, from coast to coast, and Bob (trainer Baffert) said we need to go back to work. I want to maintain my promise to the fans that if he's healthy he will continue to run, and that's what we're doing..."
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Read MoreNot long ago, I interviewed a woman who made our acquaintance difficult before and after. This woman worked with animals for a living and confided during the course of our official conversation that she got along better with them than with people.
Geez, who would’ve thought?, I felt like replying sarcastically.
I still think people who like animals more than people are control freaks setting themselves up for failure since control is basically an illusion. But after seeing the way America has taken to American Pharoah, I think I have a better understanding of this woman. ...
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Read MoreWith American Pharoah taking the Kentucky Derby all the way from the 16th post – and not the 17th as I earlier, erroneously reported – the dream of the Triple Crown is renewed and so is my uneasiness with my enthusiasm.
On the one hand, it was a terrific race with Pharoah – the misspelling is not a mistake – coming up from behind down the stretch to overtake Firing Line and Dortmund. There is something visceral about the power of these animals. I was jumping up and down in the living room, willing Pharoah to go.
On the other hand, jockey Victor Espinoza applied the whip many times in the stretch at the Run for the Roses to the point where you couldn’t help but think, Poor thing, A.P.’s already giving it his all. ...
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