Justify: Bittersweet Immortality

Back in February, trainer Bob Baffert went to the Santa Anita racing secretary to make sure a particular maiden race would fill because he had, as he put it, a potential Kentucky Derby horse to enter. The secretary was justifiably gobsmacked---that's one hell of a boast to make about any horse, but especially an unraced three year-old less than 3 months out from the first Saturday in May. Still, Baffert had trained no less than four Derby winners already including Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, so if anyone knew what a potential Derby horse looked like, it was Bob. The race filled and Justify went to the post as the odds on favorite after word of Baffert's confidence in him spread.

The big chestnut did not fail to live up to the hype. He broke slowly, but then jumped back into contention, making up the lost ground on his own and getting his head in front by the first quarter. By the time he'd run half a mile, he had widened his lead to half a length, and he was still just cruising along with no urging. At the top of the stretch, he was five lengths clear of the field with nothing more than a bit of hand-riding to encourage him to pick up the pace, and he continued to draw away, winning by more than nine lengths in a quick time of 1:21.86. It was a sensational debut for a maiden, and racing pundits sat up and took notice.

Justify's maiden win (via the Paulick Report)

A two-turn test in a muddy one mile allowance race was next with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith aboard for the first time. Justify broke a step slowly again, and Smith was content to let the colt rate behind the leader around the first turn and down the backstretch. Midway around the far turn with no apparent urging from Smith, Justify launched himself forward and passed the tiring frontrunner in a few strides. By the top of the stretch, he was clear of the field, and he flew home with ears pricked to win by six and half lengths in a solid 1:35.73.

Even though he had only two starts to his name, Justify certainly ran like a horse with Derby credentials, but in order to be eligible to run for the roses, he first needed to earn sufficient points to qualify. Baffert had originally planned to send him to the Arkansas Derby to prep as he had done with American Pharoah, but when his other top three year-old was sidelined with a bruised hock, Baffert decided to keep Justify in California for the Santa Anita Derby instead.

Facing more seasoned competition for the first time, including the talented Derby hopeful Bolt d'Oro, I thought Justify would likely be in over his head. Few horses are capable of running in a Grade 1 race in only their third start after all. Justify however broke well and moved easily to the lead, setting sensible fractions while running several lengths clear of the field. As they moved around the far turn, Bolt d'Oro began to close the gap, but before they'd even reached the quarter pole, his jockey had gone to the whip while Mike Smith still sat chilly. Coming to the top of the stretch, Bolt's jockey neatly cut the corner to save ground and moved to the inside. For a moment, he looked certain to gain on Justify, but with a little urging, Justify found another gear and pulled away again to win.

Justify in the Santa Anita Derby (photo by Jae C. Hong/AP)

I confess I was never really a fan of Justify's sire Scat Daddy nor of his sire Johannesburg. They were both precocious two year-olds who retired midway through their three year-old campaigns due to a seeming lack of stamina and/or injury, and I really didn't expect Justify would fare any better. The mile and a quarter Kentucky Derby tends to separate the men from the boys when it comes to distance ability, and many, many top youngsters have come up short in the stretch at Churchill Downs over the years. So while Justify came into the Derby off seemingly facile wins, I fully expected him to run out of gas at the quarter pole and finish up the track as his sire and grandsire had done before him. Furthermore, his juvenile training had been sidelined early on because of a pulled muscle, and he therefore did not race as a two year-old. No horse had been able to overcome that particular hurdle since Apollo in 1882, largely because building a foundation of strength and stamina over many months is essential for competing at classic distances. To say that the odds were stacked against Justify is an understatement.

Rain fell steadily all day in Louisville on Derby day, and it didn't let up even for the post parade or race. Despite the sloppy track and the usual scrum of 20 horses and riders literally jockeying for position, Justify broke well and moved right to the front, bringing the race to longshot Promises Fulfilled who led into the first turn. Justify shadowed him closely through opening fractions of :22.24 for the first quarter and :45.77 for the half, a suicidal pace that I thought for sure meant he would be cooked turning for home. Horses simply don't run that fast in the opening stages of a mile and a quarter race and have enough left to finish competitively. Nonetheless, Justify took over the lead midway around the turn while Promises Fulfilled, who was indeed fried by the hot pace, faded rapidly and ultimately finished 15th, some 40 lengths behind Justify.

Good Magic and Audible, both talented colts, made a run at Justify in the stretch, but neither could narrow his lead. He swept under the wire two and half lengths in front, smashing the 136 year-old "Curse of Apollo." Justify's incredible Derby performance made a believer out of me---he was clearly more than just a precociously fast colt. To have pressed that sizzling pace and still have had enough left in the tank to win convincingly---easily even---suggested that he was a rare talent.

(Photo by Darron Cummings/AP)

Worryingly, he was noticeably lame in his left hind the morning after the race. He was eventually diagnosed with a heel bruise and reshod with a three-quarter shoe before returning to galloping a few days later. With only two weeks between the Derby and Preakness, any setback like that is a cause for concern, but Justify seemed to bounce back with little fuss, and it was on to Pimlico as scheduled.

Once again, rain fell heavily on Preakness day, making for yet another sloppy track, Justify's third in only five starts. The deluge tailed off before post time, but thick fog rolled in to take its place. Visibility was reduced to a few hundred feet at best, meaning the horses were largely invisible from the grandstand until they were in deep stretch. Watching on TV, I was grateful for the multitude of cameras set all around the oval at Old Hilltop. The usual camera from the top of the grandstands would never have been able to find the field through the heavy fog. 

First time past the grandstand (Photo by Horse Nation)

Justify broke well and went to the lead, but this time Good Magic was sent with him and pressed the pace. The two horses raced head and head around the first turn, all down the backstretch, and around the far turn, too. Once or twice, Good Magic looked to have his head in front for a few strides, but Justify was utterly unfazed. As they neared the top of the stretch, Mike Smith turned Justify loose, and Good Magic grudgingly gave way. In the final sixteenth, Mike wrapped up on his mount, allowing late closers Bravazo and Tenfold to get terrifyingly close to nosing him out at the wire. I suspect Mike didn't realize how fast they were flying up behind him, and having put away Good Magic, he likely thought the race was won. Lucky for him, they ran out of track. Justify was headed to Belmont as the first horse since American Pharoah with a shot at the Triple Crown.

A little too close for comfort! (Photo by Mike Stewart/AP)

Having finally witnessed a Triple Crown only three years earlier, I was a bit nervous in the weeks leading up to the Belmont, but the resignation and expectation of disappointment that had always lurked at the back of my mind in past years were blessedly absent. Obviously, I did not want to wait another 37 years to see a Triple Crown winner again, but I felt fairly zen about the outcome of the race. Mostly. Whether or not Justify could win, it was going to be an exciting race, and even if he wasn't able to get the distance, he had still proven himself to be an outstanding horse. That said, I was prepared for Justify to not be a mile-and-a-half kind of horse, but having seen his extraordinary Derby performance, I was also hopeful that he really was a superhorse after all. To win the Belmont, he would need to be.

Horseman are often a superstitious bunch, especially people involved in horse racing. For example, one of Seattle Slew's co-owner's wore the same dress to the Preakness and Belmont after wearing it for his Derby victory. It had to be lucky, and why change something that might be working? Silly undoubtedly, but similar stories are woven throughout the history of the sport. So when it was announced that Justify would race with different silks for the Belmont, those of the China Horse Club rather than WinStar Farm (both part-owners of the horse), more than a few pundits predicted this change would doom his chances.

Nonetheless, Belmont day dawned clear and dry for once, and as horses probably can't see the color red anyway, Justify went to the post unconcerned by the change in his silks. Much like American Pharoah, he was sent right to the lead to dictate the pace. He settled into a comfortable rhythm and was allowed to set sensible, easy fractions with little pressure from the rest of the field. Watching him cruise around the first turn and up the backstretch, I was nervous, my heart was racing, and my hands had gone clammy. We might have had a Triple Crown only three years earlier, but watching Justify try for it was every bit as exciting.

Midway through the final turn, Justify still held the lead, and Mike Smith had not yet asked him to run. Behind him, the other jockeys were beginning to urge their mounts to pick up the pace. Seeing this, I was on the verge of hyperventilating---Justify clearly still had another gear while everyone else was struggling to catch him. At the top of the lane with a quarter-mile yet to run, Smith finally began to pump the reins and wave the whip, mostly to keep his horse from loafing on the lead. Gronkowski and Hofburg both made valiant attempts to catch Justify, but neither were really able to make up any ground, and Justify cruised under the wire a comfortable length and three-quarters in front. I of course screamed all through the stretch run again. Who could possibly believe we'd wait 37 years for a Triple Crown winner and then suddenly have two in the space of three years!

Striding into the history books (Photo by Julie Jacobson/AP)

Not surprisingly, the Belmont took a lot out of Justify, especially on top of such a short but rigorous campaign, and in the weeks following the race, Baffert reported that the horse had lost some weight, a typical consequence of a tough race. In early July, Justify returned to light training, pointing toward a late summer campaign. But after developing some inflammation in his left front ankle twice in the course of a week after workouts, his training was halted so the leg could be evaluated. When you've followed the sport as long as I have, you know these sort of pronouncements usually mean an extended break from racing, and very often outright retirement. Still, one always hopes for good news. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. On July 25th, Baffert and WinStar announced that the ankle was not responding to treatment as quickly as hoped, and because the necessary 60 to 90 day rest would mean missing the Breeders Cup Classic, the decision had been made to retire Justify. The news was disappointing but not unexpected.

Justify's career spanned just shy of four months, a total of 112 days from his first start to his last. In that brief stretch of time, he went from a maiden winner to an undefeated Triple Crown champion.  Given his dominance in every race, it seems hard to imagine him having any trouble with the final test of a three year-old, defeating older horses, but unfortunately, we'll never really know just how good he was. None of the other three year-olds this year were ever able to run with him and challenge him meaningfully. His winning times were solid if not scintillating, but his running style and winning margins suggest that he could have run faster had he been asked. There simply wasn't ever a need which in itself is pretty telling.

Knowing that Justify's sire had died untimely and that Coolmore (who stood Scat Daddy) had been making overtures to WinStar to buy Justify, his best son, it was a given the big chestnut would retire at the end of his three year-old season just as American Pharoah had done. That however doesn't do much to ease the disappointment of not seeing him race again this summer and fall. We are left to wonder what might have been and what more he might have achieved. For a few weeks, it seemed like we would have the chance to see not just two Triple Crown winners but maybe even two Grand Slam winners if Justify could score in the Breeders Cup Classic. I am grateful that we had the chance to see another brilliant horse like this without having to wait many long years as we did for Pharoah. Here's hoping that we are perhaps entering another golden decade of the sport like the 1940s or the 1970s!

* * *

A couple of years ago, I turned the head and swished the tail on this Lonesome Glory model, but I could never settle on which real horse I wanted to paint him after. Following Justify's retirement, the answer finally seemed obvious. I plan to paint a Classic-scale Justify portrait for myself at some point, but in the meantime, this guy is available on eBay. The auction ends this evening (Friday, August 17th).

"And they're into the stretch! And Justify comes roaring home to a raucous Belmont Park with one furlong to run! Gronkowski and Hofburg try to run him down. Vino Rosso is fourth. A sixteenth to go. Justify is still there! He's just perfect and now he's just immortal!"

American Pharoah: Finally the One (and Justify, too!)

"And they’re into the stretch, and American Pharoah makes his run for glory as they come into the final furlong. Frosted is second. With one-eighth of a mile to go, American Pharoah’s got a two length lead. Frosted is all out at the sixteenth pole. And here it is! The 37-year wait is over! American Pharoah is finally the one! American Pharoah has won the Triple Crown!”

Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

A number of years ago, I began painting the American Triple Crown winners. I intended to paint all eleven, and I started with the last three from the 1970s, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed, thinking they'd be the most popular. I then went back to the beginning and painted Sir Barton and Gallant Fox before becoming distracted with other projects and other Thoroughbred portrait models.

When American Pharoah was crowned the twelfth Triple Crown winner in 2015 after an agonizing 37-year wait, I knew I had to pick the project back up again, starting of course with him. I was busy trying to clean out my commissions backlog, but I squeezed in work on him between painting other models. It took me two years to finally finish him up, and while I posted a picture of the model to my Instagram feed and started writing this blog last year, for some reason, I never finished it.

My Pharoah

Three weeks ago, the day before the Preakness as a matter of fact, my sister and I traveled to Kentucky to see our hero. As kids, we always watched the Triple Crown races together, and even now that we're older and live in different states, we talk horse racing regularly. When Pharoah won the Belmont, we both shrieked our excitement to each other across the miles through our phones. Seeing him together in the flesh was a dream come true. It was an amazing, wonderful, perfect day.

The horse of a lifetime

The next afternoon, we watched Justify roll to victory through the fog at Pimlico, and we got to scream and cry and hug in the same room for once. And now, with that big chestnut's almost unbelievable performance at Belmont yesterday, I find that I am hoarse from shrieking again, and I need to paint another Triple Crown winner! I can hardly believe it. Thirty-seven years of miss after miss after heart-breaking miss, and now we've had two Triple Crown winners in just three years. Thank you, racing gods! I am a happy, happy fan.

Fairytale ending

The racing gods are often a cruel and capricious lot, and while I've cursed them often in the past, in hindsight, perhaps, just maybe, all of the anguish and frustration of the last 37 years has been for the best. Most of the 13 horses who tried and failed to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978 went on to have decent if not especially noteworthy careers (Spectacular Bid being the wildly talented exception). In light of what American Pharoah has done this year, would any of them really have been worthy to wear the crown? Maybe, maybe not. The racing gods dole out tastes of greatness stingily to give us perspective, to keep us from becoming jaded and blasé, to keep the Triple Crown something that is rare and extraordinary---to be sure we recognize true greatness when it glides past us, ears pricked, vanquished foes left dazed and far behind.

American Pharoah winning the Breeders Cup Classic with ease
(Photo by Taylor Pence, kykernel.com)

Fairytale endings are rare in this sport, but a week ago before a crowd of more than 50,000 people, we got one. American Pharoah, making the last start of his career, raced once more into the history books with a dazzling romp in the Breeders Cup Classic. He led from wire to wire, ears pricked, and was never seriously challenged. At the top of the stretch, jockey Victor Espinoza turned him loose, and Pharoah coasted to an easy 6.5 length lead, passing the wire in a sharp 2:00.07, and shaving five seconds off Keeneland's previous track record for 10 furlongs on any surface. He will be forever remembered as the horse who ended the 37-year Triple Crown drought and the immortal who claimed what is now being called horse racing's "Grand Slam," the Triple Crown plus the Classic.

Over the last week, I've struggled to find the right words to sum up Pharoah's incredible performance and career for this blog, and I have been struck all over again by how different this horse has been from others who have gone before him in the quest for racing immortality. In the years leading up to Pharoah's Triple Crown victory, as the wait grew longer and longer, I opined on more than one occasion that it wouldn't necessarily take a great horse to win the Triple Crown, just a lucky one. All we needed was one horse who was a stand-out in a crop of mediocre three year-olds, one who had just enough extra talent to get the job done. But I was wrong. It does take a great horse to win the Triple Crown, and American Pharoah has driven home this point emphatically all year long. It takes luck, yes, but it also takes soundness of body and mind, stamina, incredible fitness, great heart, a willing spirit, and that little something extra that sets a great horse apart from his contemporaries.

American Pharoah possesses all of these qualities. Looking back now on his exploits of the last fifteen months, it is awe-inspiring to see how he seemed to thrive despite his grueling schedule. He improved with nearly every start, winning regularly by daylight even though Espinoza usually wrapped up on him in the last sixteenth of a mile. His times got faster with every race, culminating in his scintillating Breeders Cup performance. He also displayed remarkable physical resilience all year long. He crossed the country 14 times, traveled more than 28,000 miles, raced at 7 different tracks, and never once put a foot wrong. He has a beautiful, fluid, ground-eating stride that allows him to effortlessly glide over the ground and that supposedly measures two feet longer than Secretariat's. It may be the secret of his ability to run on any surface at any track, from dirt to polytrack to a sea of mud.

(Photo by sportingnews.com)

Pharoah's contemporaries by comparison have not fared nearly as well. Brilliant speed-horse Dortmund was laid up most of the summer with an injury after the Preakness; Firing Line was put on the shelf for the rest of the year after failing to fire in the mud at Pimlico; perpetual bridesmaid Frosted eked out a win in the Pennsylvania Derby after challenging Pharoah in the Travers and wilting before that colt's gritty determination (and was never even a factor in the Classic); Keen Ice, who managed to pull the upset in the Travers and whose trainer boasted that he would do the same in the Classic, finished some 13 lengths behind a fresh Pharoah despite also having been rested since the Travers. 

One of Pharoah's greatest strengths I think is his good mind, easy-going demeanor, and kindness of spirit. Pharoah by all accounts is a smart, friendly horse who thrives on attention. He has been utterly unfazed by the throngs of press and fans who have come to visit him, something few racehorses have the temperament to handle. Baffert has allowed unprecedented access to the horse because of his good nature, and Pharoah has taken it all in stride as if it were his due. Which it is.

(Photo by courier-journal.com)

Traditionally, the final test of a great three year-old has been the ability to defeat older horses. Of the three Triple Crown winners in the 1970s, only Secretariat was able to do so. And though the Classic field this year was small, it was one of the deepest in a number of years. Six of the seven horses who faced Pharoah were G1 winners: Honor Code (Whitney and Metropolitan Handicaps), Tonalist (2014 Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup twice), Hard Aces (Santa Anita (formerly Hollywood) Gold Cup), Keen Ice (Travers), Frosted (Wood Memorial), and Gleneagles (2000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas, St. James Palace, National Stakes, and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere). American Pharoah made this quality group of horses look like claimers as he bounded away to an easy victory, ears pricked all the way.

He won 6 G1 races all told as a three year-old, including 5 races with purses of a million dollars or more consecutively, something no other horse his age has done. Of the four Triple Crown winners since races became graded in the early 1970s, he is the only one to win more than one G1 race after the Belmont. He retired as the fourth richest American horse in history with earnings of $8,650,300. Had Visa not cancelled their $5 million Triple Crown bonus several years ago, he would have retired as the richest American racehorse of all time.

But all numbers aside, even as impressive as the statistics are, there are more ephemeral qualities that some great horses possess. Like so many Thoroughbreds, Pharoah ran for the sheer exhilaration of running. In nearly every race, his ears were pricked observantly, listening to the roar of the crowd and the rush of the wind as he sliced through it. I have never seen anything quite like it in my 30+ years following the sport. As I've mentioned in the past, I learned to read from C. W. Anderson's horse stories, and I think he would agree that American Pharoah has the "look of eagles," that quality in great horses of heightened awareness and of seeing something in the distance just beyond the sight of mere mortals.

 

As Bob Baffert so aptly put it in the latest issue of the Blood-Horse, Pharoah is a throwback to the hickory-tough horses of bygone ages. He proved himself to be fast, determined, versatile, sound, and above all, worthy of that elite company he joined at Belmont Park. He is the horse of a lifetime.

Thirty-seven years

I turned two months old on the day Affirmed won the Belmont and secured his Triple Crown in 1978. Obviously, I was too young to even comprehend what a horse was, let alone what Affirmed accomplished that day when he out-dueled Alydar to the wire. As a child, I cut my literary teeth on C. W. Anderson's horse stories, reveling in his tales of the glory days of Man O' War, Whirlaway, Citation, and Native Dancer. I watched my first Kentucky Derby in 1984---Swale was both my first love and my first heartbreak. I have been a racing fan as long as I can remember, and for so many years, I have waited and watched and hoped that I too would have my chance to witness a Triple Crown.

Naturally, as an artist as well as a racing fan, Thoroughbreds have been a popular subject for me. I have painted more than 60 racehorses over the years, some of them Triple Crown winners, some of them near misses.

Affirmed

Seattle Slew

Secretariat

I was still too young to appreciate Spectacular Bid and Pleasant Colony's attempts at history in 1979 and 1981, and while I do remember the hoopla surrounding Alysheba's try, Sunday Silence's run at the crown in 1989 is the one that stands out most clearly to me. The week before the Belmont, I was preoccupied with thoughts of how amazing it would be to witness a Triple Crown finally. After all, eleven years had passed, and there had been three Triple Crown winners in the 1970s, so surely we were due for one again soon. My fifth grade self would have been shocked to know that not only would Easy Goer upset the Belmont, but that another eight years would pass before any horse would even have a shot at the Triple Crown again. 

Sunday Silence

Easy Goer

I was in college when Silver Charm, Real Quiet, and Charismatic all tried and came up half a length, a nose, and a length and a three-quarters short three years in succession. In 2002 after moving to Chicago for grad school, I attended my first live race, the Illinois Derby held at the now demolished Sportsmans Park. War Emblem upset the field that day in a run away victory, much as he did a month later in the Kentucky Derby and then the Preakness. But he stumbled badly out of the Belmont gate and was never a factor, finishing eighth. Seattle Slew died a few days after the Derby that year, leaving the world without a living (American) Triple Crown winner for the first time.

War Emblem

In 2003, Funny Cide could only manage third behind the mighty, mud-loving Empire Maker (who had been my Derby pick) at a rainy Belmont. Fan favorite Smarty Jones likewise succumbed to a late charge from Birdstone the following year. More than 25 years had now passed, longer than the drought between Citation and Secretariat, and there were rumbles that the series should be changed to allow more time between races or no horse would ever wear the crown again.

Smarty Jones

The parade of misses went on: Big Brown failed to stay in 2008 and was controversially pulled up; I'll Have Another injured a tendon the day before the Belmont in 2012 and was immediately retired; and California Chrome ran gamely but could only manage fourth in 2014. After the race, his owner angrily ranted that it wasn't fair to enter fresh horses and new shooters in the Belmont. He predicted the Triple Crown would never be won in his lifetime because of this. In retrospect, his timing is almost funny.

California Chrome

This year, 2015, began like many others. The Breeders Cup Juvenile winner dropped off the Derby trail early, and there was the usual jumble of sprinters who failed to move forward when the races lengthened in distance. Interesting to me though, were the unusually slow times for the winners in nearly all of the preps leading up to the Derby. The only real standouts in my opinion were a pair of colts trained by Bob Baffert---Dortmund, a strapping chestnut, and American Pharoah, a bob-tailed bay, the Two Year-Old Champ with the misspelled name who had missed the Breeders Cup because of a foot bruise.

American Pharoah had turned in quick times in his two wins as a two year-old, but his three year-old debut over a sloppy track at Oaklawn was slow but dominant. Dortmund meanwhile fired off quick victories in the San Felipe and the Santa Anita Derby, remaining undefeated as he headed into the Derby. A week after Dortmund's impressive Santa Anita Derby win, Pharoah skipped away from the field of the Arkansas Derby at the top of the stretch to win geared down in a hand ride by 8 lengths. Jockey Victor Espinoza never so much as waved his whip at Pharoah, and the colt floated down the stretch with his ears pricked. I was very impressed, but cautiously so. Plenty of horses have won their last Derby prep in an exciting fashion only to fizzle at Churchill.

Arkansas Derby win (DRF.com photo)

Interestingly, Pharoah did not in fact bring his "super-A" game to the Derby, as Baffert phrased it. The colt was upset by the loud and raucous crowd on the walk over to the paddock, and as others have done before him, he fretted away his energy before the race even started. Nonetheless, Pharoah's B game was good enough, and after stalking the pace early, he gutted out a one length victory over the tough Firing Line and his fading stablemate, Dortmund.

Kentucky Derby victory (Concord Monitor photo)

Going into the Preakness, I was uncertain of Pharoah's chances after such a hard-fought win in the Derby. I worried we'd see another race like Orb's in 2013 where he simply never fired and finished a tired fourth. But then, moments before the post parade, the heaven's opened up and a deluge of almost Biblical proportions fell on Pimlico. The track rapidly became a sea of mud, and water pooled into a small ocean at the rail, right in Pharoah's path where he would break from the 1 hole. Like his grand-sire Empire Maker before him however, Pharoah was a known mudder, and with the right positioning, I thought he suddenly had an excellent chance at adding the Preakness to his resume. Victor gunned him from the gate, dueled briefly with Mr. Z for the lead, and then moved the colt just off the rail onto firmer footing. Pharoah led the procession around the turn and down the backstretch in the driving rain, and while the field tried to make a run at him on the turn, Espinoza asked for another gear, and the plain bay colt obliged with that easy, ground-eating stride of his, winning by an ever-widening 7 lengths. The time was the slowest since Hill Prince had won the Preakness in 1950, but the rain-soaked silks and saddle pad had added 15 pounds to the 126-pound impost Pharoah already carried.

Ears pricked for a very muddy Preakness win (Patrick Smith/Getty images/NPR.org)

And so we headed into the Belmont with a chance at a Triple Crown for the 14th time in 37 years, wondering if maybe this would be the year. I tried not to get my hopes up, to steel myself against the surely inevitable disappointment. Nonetheless, insidious little thoughts crept through my mind---Belmonts are often won by front runners who can dictate the pace; Pharoah is versatile and can run from off the pace or he can set it himself; Belmont is a quirky track, but Pharoah seemed to relish the surface in his exercise gallops; Empire Maker won the Belmont, so maybe Pharoah inherited some of that stamina. Round and round and round it went.

Saturday morning at Belmont dawned with pouring rain. An omen? By the late afternoon though, the track was fast and dry. As the horses were loaded into the starting gate, I thought my heart would pound right out of my chest. Espinoza sent the colt to the lead immediately, and he quickly settled into an easy rhythm, ears pricked and loping along with that smooth, far-reaching stride. When the first quarter flashed up in :24, a tiny corner of my brain began screaming, "Oh my god, he's going to do it!" but I couldn't say it aloud for fear of jinxing him. The half came in a perfect :48 and then three-quarters went in a reasonable 1:13. Victor and Pharoah were setting the perfect, sane pace for a mile and a half race. That excitable, uninhibited part of my brain was jumping up and down and  yelling that as long as the colt could stay the distance, the chance of a Triple Crown was very, very real. But the quarter pole is where the real action usually begins, and I thought I might expire from nerves while the horses swept around the long far turn toward the pole at the top of the stretch.

The other jockeys began to ask their mounts for more as they wheeled out of the turn, and for a moment, it looked like Frosted was going to make a serious challenge. But Victor let his colt out another notch, and Pharoah's lead opened up to three lengths and then four. By that time, I was screaming incoherently. As American Pharoah flashed under the wire five and a half lengths clear of the field as America's long-awaited twelfth Triple Crown winner, I whooped and cried happy tears. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more---euphoria, elation, absolute wonder.

Belmont bliss (si.com photo)

American Pharoah's time of 2:26.65 was the fifth fastest Belmont in history and second only to Secretariat's in terms of Triple Crown winners. His final quarter mile, which he sprinted with apparent ease in :24.32, is the fastest of all the Triple Crown winners. (Secretariat's in comparison was :25 flat, the equivalent of about 3 lengths.)

After the race, I had to watch the replay again (and again and again) as I had shrieked all through the stretch call and had no idea what Larry Collmus said. In the hours after the race, it seemed surreal that at last a twelfth Triple Crown winner had been crowned, but now that a few days have passed, it has slowly sunk in. It's a fantastic feeling. I keep surfing over to Youtube and rewatching the race, and I get choked up hearing, "And here it is! The 37-year wait is over! American Pharoah is finally the one! American Pharoah has won the Triple Crown!” I suspect I always will.