OT: American Pharoah got what???

[Blakeon18]

After arriving at the Albany airport a few days ago, Triple Crown winner AP got a police
escort up the Northway to Saratoga [maybe 30 minutes] to prepare for today's Travers race.
Apparently several hundred fans were there to greet him...many roses offered as gifts.

I read that yesterday he went out for an 8:45 A.M. gallop on the track...a mere 15 thousand were
there to cheer him on....yikes!

His odds are 1-5. I bet many will buy a $2 win ticket and keep it as a souvenir...a pretty cheap one at that...and not cash it in if he wins.

Our racing gurus out there...you know who you are, Cheese...I assume his owner has a serious insurance policy out on him? Racing him is risky with breeding rights in danger of going up in smoke if something bad happens...but having a policy in that case seems kinda obvious. Correct????

 

[ed4ourgirls]

second.

 

[Waquoit]

I don't know the details but I do know the owner has a huge insurance policy on AP. Seven figure premium IIRC.

 

[UcMiami]

The answer to the OP thread title is:
BEATEN

 

[Alydar]

The TV announcers were so busy crying that they missed the big reason he lost. AP ran the 1st half mile in a relatively slow :48.3 but then was challenged by Frosted and they ran the next half mile in :46.78. The 2 furlong fractions were :23.18 & :23.6. When I learned handicapping I was told that in a 3/4 mile race it is rare to see a horse run under :25 in their last 1/4 mile. These horses ran about 14 lengths faster than that pace in the second half mile and that was the story of the race. Quite simply they got caught in what is called a speed duel and both ran out of gas in the last 1/2 mile. What looked like Keen Ice accelerating past them was really Keen Ice going by two horses slowing down.

The Travers is where Secretariat got beat by Onion. I expect that as long as he comes out of the race healthy, American Pharoah will race in the Breeder's Cup Classic. That will put him up against older horses for the first time but 3yo's have done well in the past.

 

[Huskies Rule]

I blame the owners for American Pharoah's loss. In his 3-year-old season, the horse had been shipped just a couple feet short of 19,000 miles, while racing 7 times over that brief 5 1/2 month span. All that, exacerbated by the exhausting Triple Crown campaign of 3 incredibly stressful races in just 35 days was, I believe, too much for even a great horse to overcome. Not to mention, in the Travers, Frosted looked Pharoah in the eye for almost 4 furlongs, not letting him run free and easy on the lead, taking a good deal out of him and setting it up for a stone-cold closer like Keen Ice. To Pharoah's credit, he put Frosted away in the stretch run, but as game as he was, he simply couldn't hold off the closer. His heart was huge, but his tank was on "E."

Another thing with horses- they may appear just fine, but they can have an off day like any athlete can- not feeling tiptop, tired legs, a little sore, off their feed, and on and on.

Pharoah was done in by an overly ambitious owner who should have been more circumspect with such a special equine, rested him after the Haskell, passed on Saratoga (the chalk graveyard where a measly $750K winner's purse was relative peanuts), freshened him and run in the Breeder's Cup (or not!), and then said farewell with an extraordinarily valuable horse whose one and only loss was his first-time out Maiden Special.

 

[Alydar]

I blame the owners for American Pharoah's loss. In his 3-year-old season, the horse had been shipped just a couple feet short of 19,000 miles, while racing 7 times over that brief 5 1/2 month span. All that, exacerbated by the exhausting Triple Crown campaign of 3 incredibly stressful races in just 35 days was, I believe, too much for even a great horse to overcome. Not to mention, in the Travers, Frosted looked Pharoah in the eye for almost 4 furlongs, not letting him run free and easy on the lead, taking a good deal out of him and setting it up for a stone-cold closer like Keen Ice. To Pharoah's credit, he put Frosted away in the stretch run, but as game as he was, he simply couldn't hold off the closer. His heart was huge, but his tank was on "E."

Another thing with horses- they may appear just fine, but they can have an off day like any athlete can- not feeling tiptop, tired legs, a little sore, off their feed, and on and on.

Pharoah was done in by an overly ambitious owner who should have been more circumspect with such a special equine, rested him after the Haskell, passed on Saratoga (the chalk graveyard where a measly $750K winner's purse was relative peanuts), freshened him and run in the Breeder's Cup (or not!), and then said farewell with an extraordinarily valuable horse whose one and only loss was his first-time out Maiden Special.

No one was complaining about over-racing him till he lost. Lots of great horses used the Haskell to prep for the Travers. The owners weren't doing anything unusual. If an owner is going to be criticized it should be for running their horse in all 3 triple crown races in the first place. There are far too many 3 year olds whose racing career ends because of they get injured in the chase for the triple crown. And further, if they were going to choose between the Haskell and the Travers then there is no comparison. The Travers is a much more prestigious race.

By getting beat American Pharoah didn't embarrass himself. The loss may end the hype machine of the mass media, but among racing fans it only makes the Breeders Cup Classic more interesting.

 

[Fishy]

I don't think they made a mistake by running him - he's a racehorse and it was the Travers.

Circumstances beat him.

I went to Saratoga yesterday....a couple of things -

1) He didn't look great in the post parade. It was surprisingly hot at times during the day - the breeze flat died right before the race and the clouds moved off. A couple of horses were soaked with sweat, including AP. (All of the Travers' runners were exhausted heading back to their barns - they were a shuffling, head-down bunch of puppies.)

2) You did not want to be on the rail in the stretch. Horses were stopping there all day - the winners were three to five paths out. When Frosted was laying on him around the turn and into the stretch, he was stuck there and that, plus the second half-mile, was the end of it.

I suspect they'll back off of the retirement talk and the horse will run again. Before yesterday, I would have thought their plan would be to head back to California for the Awesome Again in late September and then head to the Breeders Cup. Now, I suspect they'll either run him there and retire him or they'll send him to Kentucky early and have someone write a stakes race for him.

Semi-related; as referenced above, there's a persistent myth that Secretariat lost the Travers to Onion....he didn't.

Secretariat didn't run in the Travers. Neither did Onion...he was a four-year-old.

Onion beat Secretariat in the Whitney in early August. Secretariat then sat out the Travers and returned in the Marlboro where he beat Onion and the horse that won the Travers, Annihilate 'Em.

 

[Geno-ista]

I blame the owners for American Pharoah's loss. In his 3-year-old season, the horse had been shipped just a couple feet short of 19,000 miles, while racing 7 times over that brief 5 1/2 month span. All that, exacerbated by the exhausting Triple Crown campaign of 3 incredibly stressful races in just 35 days was, I believe, too much for even a great horse to overcome. Not to mention, in the Travers, Frosted looked Pharoah in the eye for almost 4 furlongs, not letting him run free and easy on the lead, taking a good deal out of him and setting it up for a stone-cold closer like Keen Ice. To Pharoah's credit, he put Frosted away in the stretch run, but as game as he was, he simply couldn't hold off the closer. His heart was huge, but his tank was on "E."

Another thing with horses- they may appear just fine, but they can have an off day like any athlete can- not feeling tiptop, tired legs, a little sore, off their feed, and on and on.

Pharoah was done in by an overly ambitious owner who should have been more circumspect with such a special equine, rested him after the Haskell, passed on Saratoga (the chalk graveyard where a measly $750K winner's purse was relative peanuts), freshened him and run in the Breeder's Cup (or not!), and then said farewell with an extraordinarily valuable horse whose one and only loss was his first-time out Maiden Special.

You may be right- but Horse Racing needs a horse like this to run and not retire immediately after the Triple Crown. The owners are to be applauded!!!

 

[Monte]

I am waiting for the usual response when a California horse loses in the East: "He's hurt."