Preakness Results 2015: Video Highlights, Prize Money and Reaction

The horse racing gods certainly aren't taking it easy on American Pharoah. First, he drew the rail for the 2015 Preakness Stakes. Then, a torrential downpour hammered the Pimlico Race Course shortly before the race began.

Despite it all, American Pharoah won the Preakness in dominating fashion. You can relive his impressive win below.

American Pharoah captured the win by seven lengths, and it almost certainly would've been more had jockey Victor Espinoza decided to really push the colt. Here's a look at the full results from the race, with the purse info courtesy of TheTripleCrown.com:

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lengths	Earnings
1	1	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	----	$900,000 (60%)
2	5	Tale of Verve	Joel Rosario	Dallas Stewart	7	$300,000 (20%)
3	7	Divining Rod	Javier Castellano	Arnaud Delacour	8	$165,000 (11%)
4	2	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	15 1/2	$90,000 (6%)
5	3	Mr. Z	Corey Nakatani	D. Wayne Lukas	17 1/4	$45,000 (3%)
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	-----

Tale of Verve was certainly the biggest surprise. He entered as a massive underdog and without any experience in a graded stakes race. The colt didn't look overawed by the occasion and finished second after a furious fightback around the final turn. Matt Bernier of Daily Racing Form didn't even know what to say:

Travis Stone, track announcer at Churchill Downs, wasn't even sure that it was Tale of Verve making a move on second place late in the race:

No matter what Tale of Verve does from here, he'll always have Saturday at Pimlico.

Many expected Firing Line to give American Pharoah the most trouble Saturday. He was runner-up in the Kentucky Derby, and a No. 8 post position only emboldened his chances. According to Preakness.com, Firing Line boasted 4-1 odds in the morning line.

Instead, Firing Line only mustered a seventh-place finish. After the race, trainer Simon Callaghan said that he felt the horse struggled to adapt to the wet, soggy conditions at Pimlico, per the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Dortmund was also a bit of a disappointment. The short nature of Pimlico seemed to favor his running style. However, he, too, seemed adversely affected by the weather. Finishing fourth isn't bad on its own, but the fact he was 15 ½ lengths back of American Pharoah is evidence of his struggles.

With Firing Line and Dortmund falling back, American Pharoah was allowed to take even more of the spotlight.

ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick joked that the victor should have really rubbed the decisive nature of the win in his competitors' faces:

Arizona Wildcats head coach Rich Rodriguez was happy to see trainer Bob Baffert, an Arizona alumnus, on the winning end and continuing his ever-elusive pursuit of the Triple Crown:

American Pharoah's quest for the honor remains the driving narrative in horse racing. No horse since Affirmed in 1978 has won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in the same year. According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, less than half of the United States' current population was actually around to even see it:

Obviously, a lot of eyes will be on Belmont Park. It will be interesting to see the full field for the race since top trainers have made it a habit of keeping strong horses out of the Preakness in order to afford them more prep time for the Belmont Stakes.

ESPN researcher Chris Fallica found that a larger field could spell doom for American Pharoah:

History is certainly against American Pharoah. In addition, as good as he has looked, running three major races in just over a month takes a stiff physical toll. Who knows how much he'll have left in the tank when the Belmont Stakes rolls around?

Should American Pharoah fail to capture the Triple Crown, he'll join a list of very-good-but-not-great horses who have fallen short in the past.