Three-year-olds have been unsuccessfully chasing the Triple Crown for 37 years, and perhaps it’s best they keep coming up short.
American Pharoah will be the 14th horse to come to Belmont with a chance for immortality since Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978. When there are split winners at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, there is little buzz for the third leg of the Triple Crown. But with each passing year a horse does not accomplish the feat, the legend of how difficult it is to accomplish grows.
“It’s almost like a tease,” NBC horse racing analyst Randy Moss said. “Smarty Jones, Big Brown … people see it over and over again. ‘This is The One, this is The One’ and then it doesn’t happen. It sort of increases the mystique of the Triple Crown, so to me it’s the possibility of one that does a lot for the sport.”
Moss cited the lack of interest in 1979 when Spectacular Bid captured the first two legs after Seattle Slew and Affirmed had won the Crown the previous two years. But Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, now working for NBC, thinks that was an extreme scenario.
“I think winning it this year only helps the sport and peaks the interest of those who may not have watched, which would possibly increase the interest should we have another possibility in the next year or two. I believe the only way it loses the mystique is if it happens several times in a short span of time,” said Bailey.
American Pharoah will run from the No. 5 position Saturday evening and was installed as a 3-5 morning-line favorite. But the colt will have fresh challengers in Frosted and Materiality, both of which raced in the Derby, but sat out the Preakness.
There has been a recent run of Triple Crown contenders with six horses coming to New York and falling short since 2002. American Pharoah’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, was on two of them — War Emblem in 2002 and California Chrome last year. Moss and Bailey have been arguing for 12 months over whether Espinoza was to blame for Chrome finishing fourth last year.
Moss said he believes Espinoza should have brought Chrome to the front, while Bailey argues the horse was “just tired” after three races in five weeks. It’s a disagreement they will pick up on Saturday before the race, but both agree Pharoah needs to be a front-runner.
“What concerns me is Espinoza’s comment after the Preakness that he only decided to send American Pharoah to the lead after the rainstorm when clearly, to me, he should have been committed to going to the front several days earlier when he was selected as the inside post,” Bailey said. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, put American Pharoah one or two and let him do his thing.”