American Pharoah and Beholder

Racing Royalty

By: Claudia L. Ruiz

Connections of American Pharoah and Beholder discuss these once in a lifetime horses in a recap of how they made 2015 a year to remember.

He ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought with a dominant performance in the Belmont Stakes. She put gender bias to rest, destroying the boys with her impressive turn of foot in the TVG Pacific Classic.

As fate would have it, their paths would never cross, but the son of Pioneerof the Nile and daughter of Henny Hughes were undoubtedly the poster kids of 2015. Galloping to win after win, their campaigns were awe-inspiring. No matter what part of the country you were in, if you were at the racetrack, people were talking about them.

Horseracing is a unique sport. In our sport, equine athletes are the center of attention. Admired for their beauty, power and heart, they are the most valuable players on the racetrack and the most sought after by fans. Human athletes can walk into a press conference and answer questions, but horses, not so much. To get to know them, we rely on their connections.

Taken on the ride of a lifetime, the connections of American Pharoah knew they had a great horse the moment he set foot on the track. What they did not know is that towards the end of 2014 a foot ailment would sideline the colt for several months, keeping him off the 2015 derby trail for a large portion.

Close your eyes and take a walk down memory lane with me. Let’s take it back to October 28th, 2014 – the day American Pharoah scratched out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Clockers Corner was packed with the connections of horses having breakfast when a rumor began to circulate that the favorite had been scratched. By 9:30 a.m. (PT), it was confirmed; Pharoah was out. The media went wild. Would he ever return? And, if he did, would he return the same horse with the same potential? Only time would tell.

The layoff turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and shortly after returning in March of 2015 American Pharoah galloped to greatness, unlocking the talent we had seen the year before and then some. We came to know him for his ground covering stride, freakish athletic ability and puppy dog personality, but in his early training days Pharoah was quite the handful.

“He was always a kind horse,” explained exercise rider Georgie Alvarez, “but he was a bit of a bad boy at the beginning. He always wanted to run too fast in training. As he got more mature he settled down a bit, but he used to get me in trouble with Baffert all the time.”

Talking to Alvarez is a horse lover’s dream come true. Open like a book, he welcomes all questions and answers each with undivided attention. He used to gallop Pioneerof the Nile, and before he worked with Baffert he galloped Empire Maker for Bobby Frankel. It’s not every day you meet an exercise rider that has ridden a Triple Crown winner, his sire and grandsire.

“American Pharoah and Pioneerof the Nile, they’re both super friendly and have similar strides, but Pharoah is much stronger. When I used to gallop him, sometimes before I got on I would just say to myself, ‘oh, boy.’ He could pull hard.”

We often hear that there is no such thing as perfection, and to a certain degree it’s true. Perfection is a matter of opinion – what is perfect to me may not be perfect to you. There is a general misconception that in order to be great one must be perfect; one cannot lose. Yet, some of the greatest athletes in the world have suffered defeat; Muhammad Ali was not considered great because of all the trophies on his wall, it was his ability to overcome adversity, learn from it and bounce back from a loss that made him great.

In the days that followed American Pharoah’s Triple Crown victory the… READ THE FULL STORY