Belmont Stakes 2015: Triple Crown Results, Finishing Times and Prize Money Purse

For the first time in 37 years, the Belmont Stakes ended with a Triple Crown champion as American Pharoah took home Saturday's 147th running to join one of the most exclusive clubs in sports.

Frosted finished in second, and Keen Ice closed strong to finish third, but the other seven horses were mere footnotes to another historic performance from American Pharoah. No horse finished within five lengths of him, as he laughed off a late challenge from Frosted and proved unbeatable down the stretch.

History worked against American Pharoah Saturday, with 13 horses coming this far in the last 36 years only to fall flat in the true test of a champion at the Belmont. But the Zayat Stables-owned horse never looked in danger to follow suit, dominating from start to finish just as he did at the Preakness three weeks prior.

Here's a quick look at how the race finished, along with purse payouts and a closer look at Saturday's race.

2015 Belmont Stakes Finishing Order and Earnings

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Time/Lengths	Winnings
1	5	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	2:26.65	$800,000
2	6	Frosted	Joel Rosario	5 1/2	$280,000
3	7	Keen Ice	Kent Desormeaux	7 1/2	$150,000
4	1	Mubtaahij	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	7 3/4	$100,000
5	4	Frammento	Mike Smith	16 1/4	$60,000
6	3	Madefromlucky	Javier Castellano	18 3/4	$45,000
7	2	Tale of Verve	Gary Stevens	21 1/2	$35,000
8	8	Materiality	John Velazquez	23 1/4	$30,000

Payouts

Post	Horse	1	2	3
5	American Pharoah	$3.50	$2.80	$2.50
6	Frosted	-----	$3.50	$2.90
7	Keen Ice	-----	-----	$4.50

A No. 5 post position draw didn't produce any worries for American Pharoah leading up to the race, but how he started out of it nearly doomed his Triple Crown chances just as they were taking shape.

Out of the gates, American Pharoah didn't look like he was going to emerge as the pace-setter. He didn't have a clean break and fell a head behind the pack early, but it lasted just a few seconds before jockey Victor Espinoza straightened him out.

That gave AP the outright lead early on, but not by more than a length. His first quarter-mile time of 24.06 seconds seemed brisk enough to pull away, but the field remained hot on his tail and prevented him from doing so.

Coming around the far turn, Pharoah began asserting himself and turned up the pace to avoid letting another horse take the lead around the final turn. When they got there, a dead heat was on with Frosted and Mubtaahij closing fast.

But unlike so many horses that came before him, getting to the brink of a Triple Crown only to fall victim to a fresher horse, Pharoah withstood the challenges that came his way. When it came time to turn it on, he did just that, and no other horse was a match.

For Espinoza, he came up short in Triple Crown bids in 2002 and 2014. But the third time, he reigned supreme on the back of American Pharoah, as he said on the NBC broadcast, per ESPN.com.

"I come here with a lot of confidence—more confidence than anywhere," Espinoza said. "This time, I had so much confidence in American Pharoah. That trophy caused me a lot of stress. But the third time is the charm."

Perhaps just as impressive as the initial feat by American Pharoah is the manner he did it in. While those fresher horses at least expected to test him down the final stretch, AP instead opted to show just how much more powerful of a horse he is than the rest.

Only three Triple Crown winners have ever won the deciding race by a wider margin, as told by ESPN Stats & Info:

The win was a long time coming for anyone involved with the sport. Anyone under the age of 38 just witnessed the first Triple Crown of his or her lifetime. But it's hard to say that any of those folks can enjoy this moment quite like trainer Bob Baffert.

Already one of the best trainers in the sport's history, one trophy eluded Baffert throughout his career. But after coming up short with three Triple Crown hopefuls in his career, the fourth one made good on his quest.

With that said, Baffert was willing to share his moment with the world, as John Clay of Lexington Herald-Leader reported:

As tends to be the case in these situations, a few other stables were happy with their horses' performances but simply came up short to a better horse. While nobody can deny American Pharoah proved himself as the best, he stole the spotlight from a brilliant run by Frosted.

He avoided the early trouble that doomed him at Churchill Downs and closed strong to give AP perhaps his only challenge of the home stretch. Even though they came up well short, jockey Joel Rosario lauded Frosted, as per The Courier-Journal's Derby News:

Frosted's trainer even started cheering for the favorite once he realized the race was lost, as per Scott Hazelton of HRTV:

But those in Frosted's stable—and those across the other Belmont stables—can hang their heads high, knowing the right horse won.

There were plenty of reasons to bet against American Pharoah achieving the Triple Crown Saturday, but virtually all of them were rooted in history and the years of racing that preceded him. That didn't seem to faze him, and in the process he rewrote the history books for those who will follow it up.

At long last, the dark cloud of the Triple Crown has finally been lifted over the sport of horse racing. In today's world of supreme competition and strategic rest conditioning, many rightly wondered whether it ever would.

Alas, American Pharoah did what 13 horses haven't been able to do since 1978—live up to the hype. After doing so, there's no doubt of his place in horse racing lore.