Kentucky Derby Jockeys 2015: Comments, Reaction from American Pharoah's Triumph

Pre-race favourite American Pharoah won the 2015 Kentucky Derby in convincing fashion, beating out Firing Line and Dortmund with a fantastic push in the final stretch. Jockey Victor Espinoza repeated as Derby winner after last year's run on top of California Chrome, and per Jeff Rosen of the Kansas City Star, he immediately provided fans with the best quote of the week:

American Pharoah became the first horse to ever win the Run for the Roses from the dreaded Post 17, per the event's official website, while Espinoza won his third career Kentucky Derby.

The full results for the 141st edition of the Fastest Two Minutes in Sport are below:

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lengths
1	18	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	-----
2	10	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	1
3	8	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	3
4	15	Frosted	Joel Rosario	Kiaran McLaughlin	3 1/4
5	5	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	6 1/2
6	3	Materiality	Javier Castellano	Todd Pletcher	7 3/4
7	14	Keen Ice	Kent Desormeaux	Dale Romans	8 3/4
8	6	Mubtaahij	Christophe Soumillon	Mike de Kock	9 1/2
9	13	Itsaknockout	Luis Saez	Todd Pletcher	10 1/4
10	2	Carpe Diem	John Velazquez	Todd Pletcher	11
11	21	Frammento	Corey Nakatani	Nick Zito	12
12	9	Bolo	Rafael Bejarano	Carla Gaines	12 3/4
13	17	Mr. Z	Ramon Vazquez	D. Wayne Lukas	15 1/2
14	1	Ocho Ocho Ocho	Elvis Trujillo	Jim Cassidy	15 1/2
15	20	Far Right	Mike Smith	Ron Moquett	15 3/4
16	16	War Story	Joe Talamo	Tom Amoss	19 1/4
17	4	Tencendur	Manny Franco	George Weaver	35
18	19	Upstart	Jose Ortiz	Rick Violette Jr.	60 1/2
	7	El Kabeir	Calvin Borel	John Terranova	SCR
	11	Stanford	Florent Geroux	Todd Pletcher	SCR
	12	International Star	Miguel Mena	Michael Maker	SCR

Here are video highlights of the race:

American Pharoah had a good start from Post 17 and calmly settled in the pack, while stablemate Dortmund set the early pace. Firing Line soon found himself on the shoulder of the race leader, with American Pharoah waiting until the final turn before making his move.

The colt appeared to be running wide, but in the final furlongs, it became clear it wouldn't be an issue, per USA Today's Dan Wolken:

American Pharoah comfortably kept up the pace before breaking away and crossing the line solo with room to spare. Jockey Espinoza couldn't contain his excitement in front of the microphones, per America's Best Racing:

Trainer Bob Baffert entered the race with two of the favourites for the win―American Pharoah and Dortmund―and managed to win his first Kentucky Derby since 2002 and the fourth of his storied career.

He never doubted the outcome:

His son sure showed more emotion, as shared by The Cauldron:

Baffert has trained a lot of special horses, but when you find a specimen as talented as American Pharoah, it's easy to look good as a trainer, per the Louisville Courier-Journal's Derby News:

Firing Line finally managed to beat Dortmund for the first time in his career, only to lose to American Pharoah in the final stretch. Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who last won the Derby in 1997, rode a perfect race but couldn't match the raw pace of the eventual winner. NarrowRator.com was impressed with the veteran's performance:

Trainer Simon Callaghan had nothing but praise for the performance of Firing Line, per Horseracinghl:

Martin Garcia pushed Dortmund to the head of the pack early and seemed to pay the price late, as the colt's phenomenal speed in the sprint seemed to wane. But even he had no problem admitting the eventual winner is a special horse, via Steve Jones of the Louisville Courier-Journal:

American Pharoah was clearly the strongest horse on Saturday, and given his relatively comfortable win at Churchill Downs, fans and punters will start debating his chances of becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

The second leg of the 2015 Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, will take place at Pilmico Race Course in Baltimore in two weeks. Should the colt win there, all eyes will turn toward the longer Belmont Stakes, where he'll likely meet fresher horses who skipped the second leg of the Triple Crown.

American Pharoah seemed to have plenty of juice left in the tank at Churchill Downs; whether it's enough to make history remains to be seen.

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