Belmont Stakes 2015: What Video Replay Shows About American Pharoah's Win
By now you all know that American Pharoah became the first thoroughbred in 37 years—Affirmed last accomplished the feat in 1978—to capture racing's Triple Crown with his victory in the 147th running of the Belmont Stakes. The superstar colt put in an effort for the ages as he collected that ever-elusive third jewel and defeated a rather impressive crop of contenders in the process.
With more storylines than you can shake a fist at—trainer Bob Baffert's fourth attempt at the Triple Crown, Victor Espinoza's second attempt in as many years and third overall and the impending retirement of Pharoah following his three-year-old season—this year's Belmont Stakes had everything you could want in a race.
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Throw great weather and a capacity crowd into the equation, and you have what was the quintessential setting for one of the most memorable races you'll ever see. In fact, the race was so good, we should watch it again.
After watching, be sure to read the section that follows for my breakdown of the race and what the replay tells us about Pharoah's win.
First, though, here's a look at the full order of finish and payouts for the race.
Order of Finish
| 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. | Michael 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 |
Payouts
| American Pharoah | $3.50 | $2.80 | $2.50 |
| Frosted | -- | $3.50 | $2.90 |
| Keen Ice | -- | -- | $4.60 |
Replay and Analysis
The race broke true to form. Though he didn't have the cleanest break from the gate, American Pharoah broke right to the front and grabbed an early lead.
He continued to show some of the best gate speed in the business, and even though Materiality tried, for a few seconds at least, to grab the lead, AP had no intentions of relinquishing it anytime soon.
From there, it was all American Pharoah, all the time. Running loosely contested on the front end, The Pioneerof The Nile colt led the group through easy quarter- and half-mile marks of 24.06 and 48.83 seconds, respectively.
Pharoah is clearly the best horse in this three-year-old crop and possibly the best horse in the world, but sometimes it's hard to tell. The Triple Crown winner generally seems to have things fall in his favor while out on the track, and he tends to make things look effortless.
Sometimes, we as sports fans tend to take things for granted when athletes—yes, horses are athletes—make things look like just another day at the office.
Pharoah does this often.
In order to put the win in perspective, go back to the video and shift your attention to the race's runner-up, Frosted.
He ran an outstanding race. The Tapit colt and his rider, Joel Rosario, ran perfectly through the abnormally long backstretch run and saved ground while moving along through the two path.
When he was asked, Frosted responded and showed great kick. Coming from the fifth position as the horses entered the far turn, Frosted checked up and grabbed hold of the rail, and by the time they straightened out into the stretch run, the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained colt was clear of Mubtaahij and well in control of second place.
This was Frosted's best effort to date. Forget the Wood and Derby—this was it.
Now, while that sinks in, take a second to think about the fact that his best effort never even came close to bringing him even with Pharoah. In fact, according to the race chart via Equibase.com, Frosted never came within two lengths of AP at any given quarter-mile call.
This race broke in exactly the manner that many handicappers thought it would, and Pharoah still managed to exceed expectations. Very few people saw this type of dominance coming—except that guy who totally called it in a previous article of mine (tip of the hat to you, Scott Wolny)—but for those who did, AP rewarded their faith generously.
Moving forward, Pharoah has given us a glimpse of what is to come, and his performance Saturday put him right up there with the best to ever hit the track—a topic that Bleacher Report's own Adam Lefkoe and Jessica Paquette discussed in the video below.
Unfortunately, his career is likely to be a rather brief one. Pharoah is probably going to retire at the end of the year, but the Zayat family has plans to race him this summer and most certainly in the fall—the Breeders' Cup Classic seems a likely landing spot in the end of October.
According to John Sutton of the New York Post, Justin Zayat, the racing manager of Zayat Stable and son of owner Ahmed Zayat, had this to say in relation to the racing future of his father's prized colt: "Bob is the king of the Haskell so maybe we'll go there, but we'll also look at the Travers, too. It would be cool to pull off the double to win the Haskell, then come back in four weeks and win the Travers."
Cross your fingers about the Travers—that's the best race of any season, and you owe it to yourself to get to Saratoga, New York, for Travers day—where Pharoah would have a chance to add another New York Grade 1 to his ever-expanding legacy, but the Haskell would be OK too.
So we'll end things by reverting back to the original question: What does the video replay show us? To sum it all up, it shows us that if the Zayats hold true to their word, we'll have one hell of a summer of watching American Pharoah's victory lap as he rides off into the sunset.
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