tony clark rode american pharoah in the kentucky derby.
who rode american pharoah in the kentucky derby?
tony clark
in the fall of 2014, espinoza also became the regular rider of american pharoah, trained by bob baffert and owned by ahmed zayat. espinoza started with the colt's second race, the grade i del mar futurity on september 4. the pair went on to win the frontrunner stakes. the colt was scratched from the breeders' cup juvenile, but the pair reunited in 2015 with wins in the rebel stakes and arkansas derby american pharoah and espinoza then won the 2015 kentucky derby after the win, espinoza said, "i feel like the luckiest mexican on earth. however, his performance attracted some scrutiny as he struck the horse 32 times with his whip during the race.kentucky racing stewards reviewed espinoza's ride and ruled that his whip use did not violate state regulations. on may 16, 2015, espinoza and american pharoah won the 2015 preakness stakes on a sloppy track, setting up espinoza's third attempt at the triple crown. his june 6, 2015, victory at the 2015 belmont stakes made him the oldest jockey to win the triple crown, as well as the first latino jockey to do so. for 3 years, he held the distinction of being the last jockey to sweep the triple crown until mike smith did it aboard justify in 2018. on october 31, 2015, espinoza rode american pharoah to victory in the breeder's cup classic, becoming the first jockey in history to win horse racing's grand slam--the triple crown and the breeder's cup classic.
victor espinoza
american pharoah's pedigree includes horses adept at classic race distances on his sire's side and endowed with speed on his dam's side. sire the nile won the santa anita derby and ran second in the 2009 kentucky derby, with all of his wins at distances of miles or more. prior to american pharoah, pioneerof the nile had sired five other winners of stakes races of a mile or more in his relatively new career as a stallion. trainer bob baffert observed that pioneerof the nile also raced with "a big, long stride" and had "that same springing motion as american pharoah, whose acceleration is pretty remarkable." he also praised pioneerof the nile's dam, star of goshen: "she was a freaky filly, really, really fast." to baffert, american pharoah's bloodline is a source of fascination: "every time i work him, i go back and look at the pedigree, and i go, what is going on here?"
american pharoah