American Pharoah and Victor Espinoza: Pimlico Payout, Pedigree Info and More

American Pharoah entered Saturday's Preakness Stakes as a heavy favorite, and he didn't disappoint as jockey Victor Espinoza guided him to a dominant victory on a sloppy Pimlico Race Course track in Baltimore.

With that triumph, American Pharoah is now just one win away from becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.    

Here is a rundown of the top three finishers, complete with payout information for the win, place and show horses:

Horse	Win	Place	Show
American Pharoah	$3.80	$3.40	$2.80
Tale of Verve	----	$19.00	$8.80
Divining Rod	----	----	$5.20

Also, here is a look at how all eight horses fared:

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lengths
1	1	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	----
2	5	Tale of Verve	Joel Rosario	Dallas Stewart	7
3	7	Divining Rod	Javier Castellano	Arnaud Delacour	8
4	2	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	15 1/2
5	3	Mr. Z	Corey Nakatani	D. Wayne Lukas	17 1/4
6	4	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	18 1/4
7	8	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	45
8	6	Bodhisattva	Trevor McCarthy	Jose Corrales	48 1/4

While American Pharoah labored to a somewhat unconvincing win in the Kentucky Derby, that wasn't the case Saturday. He and Mr. Z sprinted to the front of the field, and while both Divining Rod and Dortmund started to threaten at one point, the eventual Preakness winner was able to pull away.

Here's a look at the video recap:

Following such an easy victory, there was no shortage of praise via social media. ESPN's Adam Schefter was simply in awe of American Pharoah's performance:

Also, ESPN's Mike Greenberg predicted that the offspring of Pioneerof The Nile and Littleprincessemma will complete the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes:

While American Pharoah is seemingly talented enough to end the Triple Crown drought, his jockey must overcome his past inability to seal the deal.

According to Xpressbet, LLC, the 2015 Belmont Stakes will be Espinoza's third career crack at a Triple Crown:

It will also mark his second consecutive attempt, as he guided California Chrome to Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes wins last year, per ESPN's Darren Rovell:

While the Mexican-born jockey has had some chances in the past, American Pharoah may be his best hope yet. That is due to the fact that he has managed to win in two very different ways during his journey to a potential Triple Crown.

American Pharoah got to the front quickly and never relinquished his spot in the Preakness, which Espinoza was quite happy about considering the conditions, according to Kathryn Schulz of the New Yorker:

In addition to that, American Pharoah was able to handle an extremely difficult starting position with relative ease. Many horses struggle from the No. 1 spot, but that wasn't the case Saturday.

With his win, American Pharoah ended a long string of futility for horses starting along the rail in the Preakness, per SportsCenter:

So many factors were working against American Pharoah from his post position to the weather, but nothing seems to bother the Bob Baffert-trained horse.     

Every horse that has tried to complete the Triple Crown since Affirmed last accomplished it has failed for one reason or another, but American Pharoah seemingly has all the tools to etch his name in the history books.

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