Affirmed....last Triple Crown winner. American Pharoh is a great looking horse. Will be in the 5 slot in a field of 8. Belmont is a no joke track/race....1.5 miles...will we see history made?
I saw an interesting discussion on this and some said that breeding has changed and that the Derby and Preakness are both Speed races and horses are bred to win those races, esp the Derby of course. That the Belmont being a longer race requires a different breed, which is why we've had a lot of close calls, won the Derby/Preakness but not the Belmont.
I am sure that most of you know that Kentuckians cannot agree on politics; they certainly cannot agree on basketball but they will ALL agree that Secretariat was the greatest horse who ever lived...
Well Virgina they might just be right about Secretariat! BTW: Glad to see making a post now and then! For those of you who don't know Virginia was with us back in Prodigy days and has been a long time lurker here on the Skybox, just not much of a poster!
I remember Virginia. Welcome back, young lady. I knew it had to be someone intelligent based on her posts. Even now and then adds to the quality of life here. :wink: P.S. My mother was a born and raised Kentuckian, the daughter of an Irish railroader. She loved the horse races. She would agree with your statement about Secretariat.
I was listening to long time jockey and commentator Jerry Bailey on an interview yesterday. He thinks Pharoah is at least three lengths better than any of his competitors today.
:shock: American Pharoah turned out to be 5 1/2 lengths better than the nearest horse. That was the third best of all-time. His total time today was the 2nd best ever; behind only Secretariat. Kudos to his owner who sold him, then raced back from Disneyland to buy him back for $300,000...
American Pharoah just looks so smooth on the track. This is one really good horse. The sad part of this is I doubt very much that we'll see him racing after the Breeders' Cup.
I believe that the breeding rights to AP have been sold for some time. The owners probably can contractually race him for a short time, perhaps through the Breeder's Cup. To give you some idea of the incredible money generated by stud fees, check out this article on a horse called Tapit. If Tapit is getting $300,000 a poke imagine what AP will command. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-30/meet-the-300-000-a-pop-stud-that-s-dominating-u-s-horse-racing
Funny, the horse's registered name is spelled wrong which seems odd since his owners are Egyptian-American. Turns out that there was some online contest to name the horse, and the winner submitted the name spelled wrong and I guess nobody checked it. So it's American Pharoah! Correct spelling would have been Pharaoh. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/06/us/american-pharoah-pharaoh-spelling-feat/
I watched the Louisville-CSF baseball game on Sunday. They showed live the return of American Pharoah to Churchhill Downs, which is within easy walking distance of Louisville's baseball stadium. The spires can be seen from the stadium. Pretty cool.