TweetPretty cool. It's been awhile since this has been done.

As American Pharoah came out of the far turn and squared his shoulders to let his rider, Victor Espinoza, stare down the long withering stretch of Belmont Park, a sense of inevitability surged through this mammoth old grandstand. The fans in a capacity crowd strained on their tiptoes and let out a roar from deep in their souls. It was going to end, finally — this 37-year search for a great racehorse.

No, a battered old sport was looking for an immortal thoroughbred, one worthy to stand alongside Sir Barton and Assault, War Admiral and Whirlaway, Count Fleet and Citation, a horse able to earn the title of a Triple Crown champion.

There had been only 11 of them history, and America had elected five presidents, fought three wars and lived through at least three economic downturns since Affirmed had last completed the feat in 1978. In the interim, 12 other very good racehorses had pulled into this grand old racetrack on Long Island with a chance to become the next great horse only to fall short at the hands of a great rival, as Sunday Silence did to Easy Goer in 1989, or by a heartbreaking photo finish as Real Quiet did in 1998, or to find the mile-and-a-half distance of the Belmont Stakes just too much, as California Chrome did last year.

But as American Pharoah bounded into the stretch amid a deafening roar, the memories of the gritty Affirmed, the speedy Seattle Slew and that tremendous machine Secretariat were summoned from backside to grandstand, and rightfully so.


American Pharoah on his way to becoming the 12th Triple Crown winner in history and ending the longest drought between victors.
CHANG W. LEE / THE NEW YORK TIMES
No one doubted that American Pharoah was about to enter the history books. He was bouncing down the lane as if jumping from one trampoline to the other and no one was going to catch him. In the saddle, Espinoza felt a rush that twice previously he had been able only to dream about.


He was on California Chrome last year, and War Emblem in 2002, feeling those two very good colts staggering and feeling the collective gasp of more than 100,000 people disappointed once again. But not this time — Espinoza dropped the rein of his colt and let the muscled bay take him home.

There was no time to celebrate. Instead Espinoza, the 43-year-old jockey from Mexico who as a boy was afraid of horses, tried to enjoy what was going on beneath him. American Pharoah’s strides seemed to get longer and longer, but Espinoza felt as if he was riding a cloud.

“You don’t even feel him,” he said. “It feels like you are going in slow motion.”

Espinoza was confident entering the Kentucky Derby. American Pharoah, after all, had been the 2-year-old champion. He was exuberant three weeks ago in Baltimore at the Preakness when the skies opened up before the race and gave American Pharoah the sloppy racetrack that he prefers and skims over like a jet ski.

But Espinoza was even more confident Saturday in the jockey’s room at Belmont. It was the best he had ever been on. When American Pharoah leaned back in the gate as the bell rang and the doors opened, and broke a step slow, Espinoza didn’t even worry. Then, within two jumps, American Pharoah had catapulted ahead of his seven rivals and glided into the first turn like a marble circling a roulette wheel.

There was more than a mile left to run, but Espinoza knew he was in for a special ride.

“He was right in the lead, where I wanted to be, in front of everybody,” he said. “I had the best feeling.”

For good reason — Materiality was giving chase, but whenever that colt got close, American Pharoah seemed to find another gear. He shook that rival off at the mile

“Steady, steady,” Espinoza said to himself.

The horse from Dubai, Mubtaahij, took a run at him on the far turn, but got within only three lengths before peeling back. Revving up outside him, however, was the late-running Frosted. He pounded down the stretch and got within four, three and two and half lengths, but then America Pharoah stretched his stride like he was elastic and snapped off to a four-length lead. When Espinoza crossed the finish line five and half lengths ahead, he finally allowed a smile to curl at the corner of his mouth and raucous celebrate reverberate deep into his bones.

In the record books, it will say American Pharoah covered the marathon distance in 2 minutes 26.65 seconds and paid his backers $3.50 for a $2 bet and fattened his earnings to more than $4.5 million for his owner, Ahmed Zayat.

But as Espinoza galloped American Pharoah the length of the grandstand and let a thunderstruck crowd, many with tears in their eyes, cheer an ethereal performance of a once in a lifetime athlete, he could barely catch his breath.

“Wow,” he told the outrider alongside him. “Wow. He’s just an amazing horse.”

Tweeti saw the race, it was pretty cool to see history made last weekend.