Kentucky Derby 2015 Prize Money: Final Purse Payouts from Churchill Downs

The hype for American Pharoah was real. The three-year-old narrowly beat out Firing Line to win the 2015 Kentucky Derby.

American Pharoah and jockey Victor Espinoza did a great job of biding their time, sitting just a hair off the leaders for much of the race. When Espinoza saw an opening, he made his move, and American Pharoah managed to hold off Firing Line by just a single length. Bleacher Report posted a photo of the finish:

You can see the full results for the Derby below, including how the top five finishers will split the $2 million guaranteed purse.

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lengths	Payout
1	18	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	-----	$1,240,000
2	10	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	1	$400,000
3	8	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	3	$200,000
4	15	Frosted	Joel Rosario	Kiaran McLaughlin	3 1/4	$100,000
5	5	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	6 1/2	$60,000
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

According to ESPN Stats & Info, American Pharoah is the third favorite in a row to win the Kentucky Derby:

The colt entered Churchill Downs having won his last four races, all of which were graded stakes. His emphatic victories in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby illustrated his ability. In both events, he coasted to the finish after opening up massive gaps on the next-closest horses.

The biggest question surrounding American Pharoah was how he would handle such a big race in the event of a dogfight. Often in other sports you see a top-ranked team look unbeatable, but the first time it's truly challenged, the players wilt under the pressure.

With his Derby win, American Pharoah proved he's more than a flat-track bully. 

"He's just an amazing horse," said Espinoza after the race, per USA Today's Gary Mihoces. "Today, finally I let him run. For once we let him run."

While American Pharoah will rightfully grab all of the headlines, he wasn't the only horse who made a great showing for himself.

Jay Privman of Daily Racing Form wanted to make sure that Firing Line's effort didn't go unnoticed:

Firing Line's runner-up finish will likely be forgotten the further away the Derby gets. He entered the race with 9-1 odds of winning, according to KentuckyDerby.com, so if he had won, it wouldn't have been a big surprise by itself.

However, if Firing Line had gone head to head with American Pharoah and out-raced him, then he would have pulled off one of the bigger shocks in recent years.

Dortmund also looked very good, leading for much of the race before falling off around the final turn. He almost dropped all the way back to fourth as Frosted made his push.

With the first leg of the Triple Crown done, the story now becomes whether American Pharoah can become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. So many horses have gotten close before but have fallen at the final hurdle.

It's still pretty early to speculate on American Pharoah's odds to achieve the seemingly impossible accomplishment. The field for the Preakness isn't even set, and a lot can happen between now and June 6.

Plus, the Triple Crown process doesn't exactly favor a horse trying to win all three races. Last year, California Chrome owner Steve Coburn wasn't shy about criticizing a system that allows horses that skipped the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes to enter the Belmont Stakes.

For now, American Pharoah should be considered a bit of long shot to win the Triple Crown. Physically, he's more than capable of doing it, but there are too many outside factors that could negatively affect his pursuit of greatness.

Note: Purse info is courtesy of TheTripleCrown.com.