Triple Crown Winner 2015: Bob Baffert's American Pharoah Celebration, Reaction

After 37 years of attempts and near misses, American Pharoah and trainer Bob Baffert finally ended the Triple Crown drought by winning the Belmont Stakes Saturday.

American Pharoah led from wire to wire with the guidance of jockey Victor Espinoza and ultimately outclassed the field as he ran away from second-place finisher Frosted. Here is the video of American Pharoah's historic win:

The following is a rundown of the full finishing order from Belmont Park:

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer
1	5	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert
2	6	Frosted	Joel Rosario	Kiaran McLaughlin
3	7	Keen Ice	Kent Desormeaux	Dale Romans
4	1	Mubtaahij	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	Mike de Kock
5	4	Frammento	Mike Smith	Nick Zito
6	3	Madefromlucky	Javier Castellano	Todd Pletcher
7	2	Tale of Verve	Gary Stevens	Dallas Stewart
8	8	Materiality	John Velazquez	Todd Pletcher

The 62-year-old Baffert had three previous chances at winning the Triple Crown, but he came up short on every occasion. That finally changed Saturday, but he still referenced the long and difficult road it took to reach his ultimate accomplishment, according to Katherine Terrell of NOLA.com:

Per KY Derby Contenders, Baffert was almost in shock that he and American Pharoah were able to seal the deal:

Despite the heartbreak it caused him previously, Baffert was excited to finally get his hands on a trophy that nobody had earned since Affirmed's Belmont Stakes win in 1978.

Once the trophy was in his possession, Baffert created a funny moment when he decided to take a peek inside, as seen in this photo courtesy of Tim Clauss of BookerDog.com:

"

@BobBaffert has logged to look into this trophy for years! @amer_pharoah finally gave him the chance pic.twitter.com/pgnUqOMDdk

— Tim Clauss (@timclauss) June 6, 2015"

While there was a feeling of levity about Baffert and the rest of American Pharoah's team, he was also overcome with emotion at some points after such a massive victory, as seen in this NBCSports.com video:

Baffert was undoubtedly a huge part of American Pharoah's success, as was Espinoza, but the world-renowned trainer wanted everyone to know that his spectacular horse deserved all the praise, according to Kelly Whiteside of USA Today:

His admiration for American Pharoah didn't end there, though, per Eric Crawford of WDRB in Louisville, Kentucky:

Many horse racing enthusiasts were starting to wonder if winning the Triple Crown was possible in the current landscape of the sport. With other trainers opting to rest their horses in an effort to spoil Triple Crown bids in the Belmont Stakes, the odds were constantly stacked against the favorites.

That was once again true entering Saturday's race, but American Pharoah proved to be a transcendent horse as none of the other colts in the field were able to hang with him despite being fresher.

Baffert has long been viewed as an elite trainer, but he was always a Triple Crown away from joining the ranks of the all-time greats.

It took a legendary horse in order to get there, but Baffert's place in history has now been cemented, and the relief and emotion he displayed during the celebration reflected that. 

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