Breeders' Cup Classic 2015 Winner: American Pharoah Pedigree and Prize Money
American Pharoah couldn't have gone out on a more fitting note. The 3-year-old superstar ran brilliantly in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic and completed the first Grand Slam in the history of American racing.
It's really quite incredible what this horse has been able to accomplish in just one season of racing, and if not for that blemish in the Travers, we'd be looking at quite arguably the greatest horse of all time.
Even so, Pharoah's accomplishments are nothing short of incredible, and the show he put on at Keeneland Racecourse was absolutely dominant.
Trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Victor Espinoza deserve some credit for Pharoah's outstanding career, but AP's incredible abilities can also be traced back through generations of great breeding. We'll take a look at those bloodlines here and I'll also provide you with a full breakdown of the prize-money payouts from the 2015 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Prize Money Breakdown
| 1st | American Pharoah | Bob Baffert | Victor Espinoza | $2,750,000 |
| 2nd | Effinex | James Jerkens | Mike Smith | $900,000 |
| 3rd | Honor Code | Claude McGaughey III | Javier Castellano | $500,000 |
| 4th | Keen Ice | Dale Romans | Irad Ortiz Jr. | $300,000 |
| 5th | Tonalist | Christophe Clement | John Velazquez | $100,000 |
| 6th | Hard Aces | John Sadler | Joe Talamo | -- |
| 7th | Frosted | Kiaran McLaughlin | Joel Rosario | -- |
| 8th | Gleneagles | Aidan O'Brien | Ryan Moore | -- |
Pedigree Info
Sire: Pioneerof the Nile
Dam: Littleprincessemma
Grandsire: Empire Maker
Any good horseplayer knows championship horses aren't just trained into Grade-1-winning form, they're bred into it. That is true of American Pharoah as well.
The superstar colt was sired by a Grade-1 champion, Pioneerof the Nile, who also stole some glory as a second-place finisher in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. Though his racing career was relatively shortly lived, Pioneerof the Nile has produced some solid offspring, including AP (obviously), as well as Social Inclusion, Midnight Storm and Courtier.
Pioneerof the Nile was sired by Empire Maker, a former Wood Memorial and Belmont Stakes winner, and runner up in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and the Kentucky Derby.
The entire bloodline is just outstanding, and runs like this; Pioneerof the Nile-Empire Maker-Unbridled-Fappiano-Mr. Prospector.
It should come as no surprise that Pharoah was at least a Grade 1 winner, but nobody could've predicted his meteoric rise to fame, or his Triple Crown prior to his hitting the Kentucky Derby Trail.
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