Maybe it was jet lag. Maybe it was because he got bumped a half-dozen times. Maybe the great horse simply had an off day. Or maybe American Pharoah spent too much of his champion’s spirit fending off Frosted. Ahmed Zayat didn’t know the precise answer Saturday after his Triple Crown champion was beaten in the Travers Stakes by Keen Ice, but the emotional owner of American Pharoah said he intended to find out on the plane ride home. He would talk to trainer Bob Baffert at length. He would talk to jockey Victor Espinoza at length. He sounded like he would talk to Pharoah himself if the horse could talk. And then he will decide when — and if — American Pharoah runs again.”Is the show over? Is it the time?” Zayat said. “My gut feeling right now, without being outspoken, is to retire.”
As the hype built, as expectations rose over the past week after it was announced last Sunday that American Pharoah would run in the 146th Travers, this would come to be known as Pharoahtoga Day at Saratoga Race Course. Pharoahtoga Day, however, would take on a sudden chill. This would be Keen Ice Day. Two of the colt’s owners, John Buckley and Ralph Durante, are from North Haven. And as bad as you had to feel for American Pharoah, you had to feel good for the local guys.
“It’s unbelievable,” Buckley said. “It’s like an out-of-body experience. I’m thrilled to death for our horse and what Donegal Racing has done. You feel like you’re part of history. Yet at the same time you are so aware that American Pharoah has done a tremendous amount for racing. He’s the best thing to happen to racing in the last 35 years. So it’s bittersweet in that way.”
Saratoga isn’t known as the “Graveyard of Favorites” for nothing. Upset beat Man o’War at Saratoga for the magnificent horse’s only defeat. Thus, our term “upset” today in sports. Jim Dandy, at 100-1, beat Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox in the 1930 Travers. You may recall that Baffert said after the Belmont he didn’t want to find any Onions. He was talking about Onion’s stunning upset of Secretariat in the 1973 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga.Whirlaway in 1941 is the only one to win the Triple Crown and the Travers.
“I feel bad for the horse,” Baffert said. “He didn’t have his A game.I could tell by Victor’s body language, he didn’t have the power that he usually has. But we saw the last 3/8 was just guts, guts and glory.”After he finally shook Frosted off, I really thought, well, maybe there’s a chance, but his tank was empty.”
Secretariat didn’t go undefeated in his 3-year-old campaign after winning the Triple Crown. Neither did Seattle Slew nor Affirmed. Pharoah’s legacy certainly is not ruined by this defeat. But the day for the 50,000 fans that filled the Spa certainly was.Zayat deserves praise for running the horse at the Haskell and Travers. Nowadays, there are so many millions there for stud that a lesser horseman might have severely reduced Pharoah’s schedule or retired him. Zayat recognized how much Pharoah means.
Pharoah ran for history in the spring and, in becoming the first Triple Crown champion since 1978, he made it. Since then, he has run for racing and its fans.Baffert had sounded so confident the day before the race. He said he had been a little nervous before the Haskell, unsure what to expect after the Triple Crown grind. After the Friday workout at Saratoga, however, he said he felt great.
Before the race, Baffert said the break was the key and Pharoah needed to get in the groove. Look for those big ears of his to be thrown forward, Baffert said, and you’ll know he’s fine. Well, American Pharoah broke fine. He took the lead. Only Frosted wouldn’t let go. He battled. The race fractions also would suggest that if Pharoah had been on his A game, he would have frosted Frosted. American Pharoah “could have done it easy,” Baffert said. “We gambled. He showed us all signs that he was ready to go, but you really don’t know until they actually run.” When regular rider Kent Desormeaux decided to go on Texas Red Saturday, Javier Castellano went on 16-1 Keen Ice. Castellano tracked American Pharoah and Frosted and when he saw them slow down the stretch he made his move.
“Frosted took him on earlier than I thought,” Buckley said, “and they went at it pretty good for five-eighths of a mile. That set up well for Keen Ice’s style to finish and grind.” So much had been made of American Pharoah getting better and better that left unnoticed was the fact that Keen Ice, who had one career win before Saturday, also had improved. Keen Ice was 21st on the Derby eligible list for a long time before finally getting in and finishing seventh. He was third in the Belmont and second in the Haskell.
“The horse has not had a bad day in the last three months,” said Jerry Crawford, who heads the 25-person Donegal Racing partnership Buckley and Duarante are part of with eight horses. “He just wasn’t mature enough to be competitive in the front end of the Triple Crown.” “He really jumped forward in the Belmont and Haskell and continues to improve,” said Buckley, who watched from the clubhouse with his family, including his dad, who got him into sport. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Yet as Crawford talked about a potential rematch in the Breeders’ Cup, Zayat was an emotional bundle of uncertainty. Pharoah hadn’t lost since his debut last August. He had won eight in a row. He also has been flown back and forth across the country enough times to be accorded gold status on frequent-flier plans.”I was very confident here, maybe 100 times more than I was at Monmouth,” Zayat said. “Even though they call it the graveyard, I wasn’t concerned.
“Have I pushed the envelope too much? I swear, I really wanted it for the sport. I’m a fan. I love this horse. I pushed so hard. I hope I didn’t push Bob because I know Bob is not the person to be pushed. We genuinely wanted the horse to tip us. He gained weight. The horse was 100 percent, healthy, happy. I mean, his [workout] readings are insane. He gave us zero inclination.” Espinoza said he saw some sweat on Pharoah before the race and he’d never seen that in previous races. He said from the 5/8 pole, his energy level was not the same. He also said Frosted, who finished third with Joel Rosario, bumped his chest into his horse’s hips.
“He kind of lost his stride,” Espinoza said. “He probably hit me six or seven times.” So there is much for Zayat to discuss. “I’ve made all my decisions in my life being an entrepreneur, being a gut man. My gut’s saying, if the horse showed me that he tailed off, there’s no question in my mind that the right thing is to retire him.
“If this horse is 1 percent not the American Pharoah that we cherish, show’s over.”
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