Belmont Stakes 2015: Analyzing Results for American Pharoah, Notable Finishers

American Pharoah's performance in the Belmont Stakes was a feat that will be held in high esteem for generations of horse racing fans.

Not only did American Pharoah finally end 37 years of frustration for those who had been rooting for a Triple Crown winner, he did it in a manner that is earning him comparisons to Secretariat, who may very well be the greatest thoroughbred of all time.

There were two legitimate challengers to American Pharoah before the race started. Materiality was the horse that had the speed to stay with American Pharoah through the early part of the race, and if he could have pushed the favorite to run just a bit quicker in the first mile, it might have opened things up for the closers in the race.

The best of those was Frosted, who started right next to American Pharoah in the six hole. Frosted had a very rough time in the crowded house that was the Kentucky Derby, and he got shuffled backwards. By the time he began his run at Churchill Downs, he was in 15th place. The fact that he finished fourth indicated that he was a strong, solid horse worthy of respect.

Post Position	Horse	Jockey	Results	Skinny
5	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Win	Sharp start, solid pace and pulled away in deep stretch
6	Frosted	Joel Rosario	Place	Well-positioned throughout, moved up in stretch run, but outclassed by winner
7	Keen Ice	Kent Desormeaux	Show	Made a three-wide move, gets up for third
1	Mubtaahij	Irad Ortiz Jr.	4th	Simply had no rally to join the leaders
4	Frammento	Mike Smith	5th	Fell behind early, rallied four-wide but had little left at the end
3	Madefromlucky	Javier Castellano	6th	Unimpressive sixth at every point of call
2	Tale of Verve	Gary Stevens	7th	Brilliant jockey unable to coax challengin run
8	Materiality	John Velazquez	8th	Challenged American Pharoah for a mile, tired and fell back

The Belmont played out the way both Materiality and Frosted wanted it to. Both looked like good horses at various moments in the race. However, good was not enough against an opponent like American Pharoah. Bob Baffert's charge was in excellent shape, he had trained well before the race and he made the trip from his training home in Churchill Downs to Elmont, New York without incident.

Prior to stepping onto the track at Belmont Park early Saturday evening, everything had broken American Pharoah's way.

As good as the horse had looked in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, he appeared to run his best race in the Belmont Stakes. He had gained the lead in the first couple of strides, and while Materiality got close to him early and Frosted made a nice move down the stretch, American Pharoah was never in danger.

He made a run into history that compared with the great Secretariat, and the Wall Street Journal made a video comparing the runs of the two great horses. It's an apt comparison, because Secretariat (2:24.0) had the fastest time in Belmont history, while American Pharoah (2:26.65) had the second-fastest time of any winner.

Rob Carr/Getty Images

Secretariat was challenged early in the 1973 race by a very good horse named Sham, who stayed with him for the first half-mile. While Secretariat ran at a faster pace than American Pharoah, both horses were in complete control of the race. Big Red would go on to destroy the field by 31 lengths, and American Pharoah would win his event by 5 1/2 lengths.

The 2015 Belmont Stakes was notable for the same reason that the 1973 version was. In both years, great champions were at their peak as they beat good challengers.

In another year, Sham might have been good enough to win a Triple Crown race, but he could never do better than second against Secretariat.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

In another year, Frosted or perhaps even Materiality would have been good enough for a win one of the three jewels, but those horses were not good enough to derail American Pharoah.

Just as the 1973 Belmont has grown in stature as the years have passed, the 2015 Belmont will almost certainly do the same.