Tag: Ahmed Zayat

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Grand Slam? Yes, Ma’am!

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Above: American Pharoah leaves the race track for the last time, retiring to stud as a true champion.

We, the fans of horse racing, ask for the stars and American Pharoah delivers!  Other sports like tennis and baseball have a “Grand Slam” to finish their season and now, for the 1st time in history, so do we!  We waited 37 years to have a Triple Crown winner and the horse to do this was American Pharoah.  In 1984 the Breeders’ Cup Classic was created as the definitive race to highlight the year end champion of international racing.  Going in to this year’s Breeders’ Cup, we knew that we might have the 1st champ to win both the Triple Crown and the BC Classic.  We all waited eagerly and we got our Grand Slam!

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Above: American Pharoah draws the largest paddock crowd at Keeneland, in Lexington, KY, that I have ever seen.  My friends waited 4 hours or better to get a glimpse and it was difficult.

What a year to go with my passion and start blogging on the Thoroughbred industry.  I started the very first day of this year with my brand new computer from Christmas.  My experience has been one joy to the next.  I love the opportunity to share with all of you as others in the industry are so kind to share with me as well.  It has been an amazing year.  Watching American Pharoah’s career is a dream come true for racing fans.  He won the Kentucky Derby by a length, then the Preakness Stakes by 7 lengths and the Belmont Stakes by 5 and 1/2- lengths as fans wept for joy, many having seen such Triple Crown greatness for the 1st time in their lives.  Yesterday, 10/31/15, he won the BC classic in 2:00.07 by 6 and 1/2- lengths!

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Above: American Pharoah parades before taking post position 4 and then he blurs past me shortly after he breaks from the gate already in the lead.

The Breeders’ Cup Classic is a 1 and 1/4 mile race on the dirt with a purse of $5 million dollars.  American Pharoah was the 3-5 favorite to win and he did so beating Keeneland’s track record, for a race of this length, which was 2:05.36.   To learn more about American Pharoah and his connections check out the tags on my blog or read my post Fabulous Pharoah  Too see more of his great BC Classic win, watch this cool video IMG_2961 and see my photos below.

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Above: Victor Espinoza has no use for the whip.  He points at us, the fans, as he sails by the finish line and we can’t even see American Pharoah’s hooves touch the ground.  

Finally, thank you to all of my friends that got me great seats and photos and to Bob Baffert, American Pharoah’s trainer, Victor Espinoza, the amazing jockey, Ahmed Zayat, the owner, all of the fans, the industry employees and connections that helped to make history.  Also, a special thanks goes out to American Pharoah, the horse.  He has some character and true athleticism and passion.  He will retire tomorrow at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, in Kentucky.  Let’s all hope he has a long happy life and sires many more champions like himself.  This is Espinoza’s 3rd BC win.  Baffert just won his 12th BC race.  The Zayat family is enjoying their 1st BC win.  In the BC Classic Effinex ran 2nd and Honor Code showed 3rd.  Stay tuned for a full Breeders’ Cup post on all of the other great races over the 2 day event.

 

 

 

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Phollowing Pharoah

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I have not had the opportunity to make any recent trips but my mom went up to New Jersey for a week recently.  She was kind enough to do a little drive by photography of Monmouth Park during her travels.  This was the site of American Pharoah’s last race.

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American Pharoah won the 48th William Hill Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey on August 2, 2015.  There was a huge crowd of 60,983 fans in the stands that day.  There was a large crowd there in 2007, as well, when Monmouth hosted the Breeders’ Cup.  When my mother was on the property, this past Saturday, she said there was a good crowd, despite the negatively slanted media’s opinion.  The fans were there to watch a full race card and the Grade III Monmouth Oaks.  This race first took place in 1871 and is the oldest active Oaks race in America.  This year the race was 1 and 1/16 miles long for 3 year olds with purse money of $100,000.  Paco Lopez won riding Delightful Joy.  She is a Tapit filly and this was her first graded stakes win.  She beat out Eskenformoney who ran in the Kentucky Oaks and the Mother Goose Stakes, which I have previous stories about each of those races on my website.  White Clover owned by Calumet Farms showed 3rd in that race.

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Having Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah participate in the Haskell was great for the track and the community.  Ahmed Zayat, American Pharoah’s owner lives in New Jersey.  The NJ State Senate was so pleased with the excellence in which Monmouth Park handled the Haskell that they honored the track for its success in doing so.  The track has been managed out of three buildings since 1870 with occasional closures.  It is my hope that this track has many years to go and to host some wonderful races.

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Mom quickly spotted her home city posted on a truck at Monmouth Park.  The Horse Capital of the World, Lexington, KY is the headquarters for Sallee Horse Vans.  They have a hub at Monmouth Park.  It is estimated that over 50,000 horses this year will travel by Sallee.  They have over 200 routes that cover over 4 million miles.  This family owned business has been in place since 1963.  In Lexington they even have a nice 16 stall barn.

Monmouth Park was where American Pharoah’s last raced and I have been waiting all this time to see his next race.  Tomorrow, August 29th he will finally run again.  This race is the Travers Stakes, to take place in Pharoahtoga… well Saratoga, NY.   I had a nice story earlier in the month about Saratoga race track.  Check it out on my website.  Secretariat also chose to race at Saratoga following his Triple Crown win.  He ran in the Whitney Stakes.  The Travers, named for William R. Travers, one of the tracks founders, began in 1864.  Some call it Saratoga’s Midsummer Derby.  It is the most popular day of Saratoga’s summer race meet.  The race is Grade I for 3 years olds with a purse of $1,600,000.  The distance is 1 and 1/4 miles on the dirt.  Post time is 5:46 p.m. EST.  It will be covered live on NBC.  Should American Pharoah win he will be awarded the Man O’ War Cup by Tiffany and Co. and he will be blanketed with carnations.

The post positions are:

  1. Upstart
  2. American Pharoah
  3. Mid Ocean
  4. Texas Red
  5. Frammento
  6. Frosted
  7. Keen Ice
  8. Tale of Verve
  9. King of New York
  10. Smart Transition     

As good as American Pharoah is, this is still a tough race.  Any of these horses could win.  Frosted and Texas Red have the next best current odds.  American Pharoah was able to bring his favorite traveling partner along with him to this race, despite a minor injury prior.  Smokey The Pony will not only be there but Donna Brothers, former jockey and current Thoroughbred racehorse reporter, will ride him while doing race coverage for NBC.  Smokey flew with American Pharoah to Lexington,KY where they picked up Funny Cide and then flew on to Albany.  I wish the airport had a fan lot like they sometimes do for the University of Kentucky Basketball team.  I really wanted to see the 3 equines.  I just spent time with Funny Cide at the Kentucky Horse Park recently.  I posted that story to my website the last day of July.  Funny Cide is a Saratoga bred horse who raced there twice and has won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.  He was on view in Saratoga’s paddock on August 27th.

Keep on following American Pharoah, where I hope he wins the Travers and then the Breeders’ Cup.  I wish everyone a safe and lucky weekend!   Don’t forget, we can watch American Pharoah’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, on the new season of Dancing With the Stars starting 9/14/15.  To see more stories and those I mentioned during this post, follow my page on Facebook or Twitter and you can always go straight to my website, as well.

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Update:  Frosted was third, American Pharaoh was second and congratulations to Keen Ice, the winner of the 2015 Travers!  I am so happy that no jockey or horse was inured during the race and I look forward to all the participants exciting futures.

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