New York - American Pharoah will battle seven rivals and the weight of history on Saturday as he bids to end a 37-year Triple Crown drought in the Belmont Stakes.
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Victor Espinoza, is an odds-on favourite and owner Ahmed Zayat says there will be "no excuses" if the sweet-striding bay colt fails to clinch the coveted treble.
Then again, the 1 1/2-mile Belmont, dubbed the "Test of the Champion" has proved the undoing of 13 Triple Crown contenders since Affirmed became the 11th horse to win all three races in 1978.
Baffert, who saw his Triple Crown contenders Silver Charm, Real Quiet and War Emblem beaten in the Belmont, can't even contemplate what it would feel like to pull off the feat that so fascinates US racing fans.
"It's just something that I don't think about," he said. "I know how tough it is and so I never get ahead of myself.
"I think the horse is deserving of it, what he's done this year," Baffert added of the colt that overcame unfavourable posts in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, winning the Derby by a length with a late stretch run before romping to a seven-length win in the Preakness on a sloppy Pimlico track.
"He's an exciting horse to watch, and he's an exciting horse for me to train -- the way he does things easily," Baffert said.
The pressure wasn't affecting American Pharoah in the build-up to the biggest race of his career.
He worked impressively on Monday at Churchill Downs in Kentucky, then jogged happily at Belmont on Wednesday after making the trip to New York.
While Baffert acknowledges the 1 1/2-mile Belmont distance -- rare in US racing -- is an unknown, Zayat notes that none of the three-year-olds in the field have any more experience with the longer distance than Pharoah.
AFP
