I have been a relatively diehard horse racing enthusiast since high school. Wisely, however, I chose to pursue law as a career rather than handicapping. My weak handicapping skills were never more evident than in yesterday’s post, when I forcefully, enthusiastically and unambiguously predicted that American Pharoah would not win the Belmont Stakes and, in so doing, become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed pulled it off in 1978.
American Pharoah made it look easy, taking an early lead, setting modest fractions, turning back a mild bid at the top of the stretch by Frosted, the horse I’d pegged to win the race, and then cruising home to win by 5 lengths. The field could have done another circuit and nobody was going to pass that horse.
Not only is the win a shot in the arm for a sport and industry that has been in a lengthy tailspin for decades, it will muffle (at least for a while) the critics who maintained that the Triple Crown was impossible to win and that the format should be changed.
Hats off the trainer Bob Baffert, its owners Zayat Stables and jockey Victor Espinoza. That’s one heck of a horse.