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Jun 8 15 11:25 AM

DRF-Watchmaker: How does American Pharoah compare to other Triple Crown winners?

06/06/2015 9:03PM

Watchmaker: How does American Pharoah compare to other Triple Crown winners?

Now, after his dominant victory in the Belmont Stakes to become only the 12th ever to capture the Triple Crown, the debate shifts from whether American Pharoah can make history to his place in it.

The best way to address that, I think, is to compare American Pharoah to other Triple Crown winners at this stage of their careers, although that isn’t so simple. But I do think it’s very safe to say he’s better than Assault and Omaha, who are widely regarded as the weakest Triple Crown winners.

I seriously doubt American Pharoah is the equal of Citation at this point in their careers. Jack Wilson, the legendary Daily Racing Form chart caller who I worked alongside for almost nine years, once told me Citation, when he was right, could “beat Secretariat pulling a wagon.” Jack might have been embellishing a bit, comparing a horse I knew he loved to a horse he knew I loved, but I got the point. Citation was an all-time great. But I can’t really compare American Pharoah to horses like War Admiral and Count Fleet at this point in their careers. There are nuances there of which I’m unfamiliar.

However, I can compare American Pharoah, through the Belmont, to Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed, at the same points of their careers. When Secretariat came along, I was still seven years away from working in the racing industry, but I was already a rabid, seasoned (okay, cynical) racing fan for almost five years. I lived and breathed those horses. So I think I can speak from a position of some knowledge.

American Pharoah does not compare to Secretariat, but really, who does? Secretariat is the frame of reference by which all modern day Thoroughbreds are measured. It’s frankly unfair to compare any horse to Secretariat.

Comparisons to Affirmed are tricky, and perhaps impossible. Affirmed had Alydar, who was truly a fantastic racehorse, to affirm (no pun intended) his greatness. American Pharoah has no such foil. This was considered a strong crop of 3-year-olds in the run up to the Kentucky Derby, and I think it still is. But American Pharoah is just so much better than his contemporaries that there is no one to really push him the way Alydar pushed Affirmed.

But Seattle Slew … I think I was one of the first to draw a comparison between American Pharoah and Seattle Slew, doing so in this space a couple of months ago. I just felt as though their untapped brilliance in the run up to the Kentucky Derby was comparable, as were their running styles. But now, I will say this: At this point in their careers, American Pharoah is better than Seattle Slew was.

People either don’t know, or forget, that Seattle Slew was not embraced by the racing public, even after becoming the first and only horse to complete the Triple Crown while undefeated. It was not until what Seattle Slew accomplished as a 4-year-old that he was widely accepted as being a great horse.

The main reason for that was, Seattle Slew beat a very, very weak group through his Triple Crown run. American Pharoah has beaten much, much better horses through his Triple Crown march, and for that reason, he gets this nod from me.

Two other points I want to make, and both have to do with why American Pharoah was able to succeed in winning the Triple Crown when so many other horses in recent years failed.

First, unlike others who were recently denied  the Triple Crown in the Belmont, American Pharoah was dominant over his age group from the get go. He is not a horse who got good just over the last three months. He was champion 2-year-old male last year despite not having raced after Sept. 27. That is almost unheard of in the Breeders’ Cup era, and illustrates just how brilliant he has been from early on.

Secondly, this Belmont Stakes just set up perfectly for him. He was the controlling speed, a controlling speed who could also rate, and figured to be pressured mainly by Materiality, another who could also rate, and who completed an equation that would result in a very easy early pace.

 

Sure enough, this Belmont was nearly over when American Pharoah posted a half-mile split under a hammerlock in 48.83 seconds, and it was really over after six furlongs in 1:13.41.

 

"My bets never lose, they just don't win."