May 03--Here we go again.
For the third time in four years a horse with California connections has come out of the Kentucky Derby with buzz indicating this might finally be the year for a Triple Crown winner in horse racing.
The horse is American Pharoah and the connection is his trainer, Bob Baffert.
American Pharoah was the 5-2 favorite coming into Saturday's Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and he did not disappoint, winning the most important horse race in the world by a length.
He had to engage in a stretch duel with Firing Line, another Southern California runner, while Dortmund just didn't have enough on the rail, finishing third another three lengths back.
Dortmund broke on top early through easy fractions in the 1 1/4-mile race, run before a record 170,513 fans. American Pharoah, Firing Line and Dortmund were the top three horses -- in varying orders -- through most of the race until the stretch. That's when American Pharoah swept wide and easily went ahead of the others.
Victor Espinoza, who won the Kentucky Derby last year aboard California Chrome, guided American Pharoah through a confident and measured race. Even though Firing Line was game in the stretch, it never looked as if American Pharoah was going to falter.
It was Espinoza's third Kentucky Derby win, and second with Baffert.
"I think I'm just a lucky Mexican to win three Kentucky Derbies and second in a row," Espinoza said, referring to last year's ride on California Chrome.
"He's just an amazing horse," Espinoza said of American Pharoah. "Today I just let him run for once."
American Pharoah paid $7.80, $5.80, $4.20. Firing Line returned $8.40, $5.40 and Dortmund paid $4.20 to show.
It was Baffert's fourth Kentucky Derby win. He was in the winner's circle in 1997 with Silver Charm and then with Real Quiet the next year. His last win before Saturday was in 2002 with Espinoza aboard War Emblem.
"American Pharoah is something, he makes a trainer look good," said Baffert, who runs his stable out of Santa Anita and lives in nearby La Canada-Flintridge.
"It's a fantasy moment for us," Baffert said. "It's unbelievable I'm standing here for the fourth time."
American Pharoah started his career in August at Del Mar and finished an ordinary fifth. But you could tell the horse was destined for better. He came right back and won two Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds at Del Mar and Santa Anita.
After a five-month layoff, Pharoah was sent back East with the idea Baffert didn't want his two big stars-in-the-making running against each other. It paid off.
American Pharoah won the Rebel Stakes and the Arkansas Derby, both at Oaklawn Park. His win in the Arkansas Derby was by eight lengths in a race in which Espinoza never even asked him to run hard. After that, he was clearly the Kentucky Derby favorite.
And that's how this star was made, carefully.
If American Pharoah comes out of the race healthy, there is little question he will be headed for Baltimore and the Preakness Stakes in two weeks.
The fact there hasn't been a Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 is due largely in part to the grueling schedule of three major races in five weeks. The Preakness Stakes is run over a slightly less 1 3/16 miles and the Belmont Stakes over an excruciating 1 1/2 miles.
In 2012, I'll Have Another, from the barn of Southern Californian Doug O'Neill, was a mildly surprising winner of the Kentucky Derby and then followed that with a strong win in the Preakness. Horse racing was primed for a Triple Crown. But the day before the Belmont he was scratched because of a sore tendon.
Last year, California Chrome upped the interest factor by winning both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, and was on the doorstep of immortality heading into the Belmont Stakes. But, he finished fourth, beaten by three horses, none of whom had run in both previous races.
It prompted California Chrome's co-owner, Steve Coburn, to unleash a tirade against the other horses, saying that horses should have to run in all three races and not pick and choose which ones to run. He later apologized, but it underscored the fact that a horse trying to win the Triple Crown probably will be running against fresher horses.
How many fresh horses will be in the Preakness Stakes is unknown, but the freshness of a Kentucky Derby win should stay with American Pharoah for at least a few days.
john.cherwa@latimes.com
