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American Pharoah (foaled February 2, 2012) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the American Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2015. In winning all four races, he became the first horse to win the "Grand Slam" of American horse racing. He was bred and owned throughout his racing career by Ahmed Zayat of Zayat Stables, trained by Bob Baffert, and ridden in most of his races by Victor Espinoza. After running poorly in his track debut as a two-year-old, American Pharoah won his next races, the Grade I Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes, each by several lengths. An injury kept him out of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, but the strength of his two wins nonetheless resulted in his being voted American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse at the 2014 Eclipse Awards. American Pharoah began his 2015 campaign with wins in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby and went on to win the 2015 Kentucky Derby and 2015 Preakness Stakes. He won the Triple Crown in a wire-to-wire victory at the 2015 Belmont Stakes, becoming the first American Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 and the 12th in history. His winning time was the second-fastest for a Triple Crown winner and his closing quarter-mile time of 24.32 was faster than Secretariat's. He next shipped to Monmouth Park and easily won the Haskell Invitational on August 2, prompting Baffert to say, "He just keeps bringing it; he's a great horse." Three weeks later, he finished a close second in a hard-fought Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on August 29, 2015, snapping a winning streak of eight races. After a layoff of two months, he shipped to Keeneland for the 2015 Breeders' Cup and contested in the Breeders' Cup Classic, where he challenged older horses for the first time, and won by lengths, breaking the track record. Before the 2015 season began, Zayat had sold breeding rights to the colt to the Ashford Stud in Kentucky, a division of Ireland's Coolmore Stud. He retained control over the colt and his racing career, as well as an undisclosed dividend on stud fees. Pursuant to the agreement between Zayat and Ashford, American Pharoah was retired at the conclusion of his 2015 racing year to stand at stud beginning in 2016. ==Background== American Pharoah is a bay colt with a faint star on his forehead and no other white markings. He is from the second crop of foals sired by Pioneerof the Nile, who finished second in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. The stallion's first crop included Holy Bull Stakes winner Cairo Prince, and Social Inclusion, who finished third in the 2014 Preakness Stakes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pioneerof the Nile – Stud Record – Bloodstock Stallion Book )〕 American Pharoah's dam, Littleprincessemma, was purchased by Zayat in 2007 for $250,000.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=May 23, 2015 )〕 She raced but did not win either of her two starts in 2008.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Littleprincessemma – Statistics )〕 American Pharoah was her second foal, following allowance race winner Xixixi. Since his birth, she had produced two more full siblings to American Pharoah: a filly born in 2014,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Zayat Stables, LLC: 2014 Filly by Pioneerof the Nile and Littleprincessemma )〕 and a colt, foaled in 2015〔 after she sold—in foal to Pioneerof the Nile—in November 2014 for $2.1 million. American Pharoah was bred in Kentucky by his owner, Ahmed Zayat, CEO of Zayat Stables, LLC, and was born at 11 p.m. on Groundhog Day, February 2, 2012, at Tom VanMeter's Stockplace Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. When he was a few days old, he and Littleprincessemma went to nearby Pretty Run Farm, also owned by VanMeter, where they remained for a few months. Later, the mare and foal were moved to Vinery, another Lexington farm where Pioneerof the Nile was stabled. There, American Pharoah was weaned at five months of age, and stood out from the other weanlings due to his conformation and good temperament. In January 2013 as a yearling, he went to Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Kentucky, and began to be prepared for possible sale. In August 2013, American Pharoah was consigned by the Taylor Made Sales Agency to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling sale. A few weeks before the auction, American Pharoah bumped his leg and had a small lump that was visible to potential buyers at the sale, which may have discouraged bidders. He was officially purchased for the posted minimum of $300,000 by Ingordo Bloodstock,〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale )〕 acting as an agent for Zayat, who in effect bought back his own horse. Zayat had pledged that he would not sell the promising but untested colt for less than $1 million. Zayat similarly bought back Pioneerof the Nile, American Pharoah's sire, for $290,000 in a 2007 yearling auction.〔 "We felt that he had brilliance in him," said Zayat of American Pharoah, "his demeanor, his aura, his conformation, the way he moved." Following the auction, the horse first went to Florida and was started under saddle at the McKathan Brothers Training Center near Citra, where trainer J.B. McKathan said, "He just did everything right."〔 Once he was ready to begin race conditioning, he went into training with Hall of Fame inductee Bob Baffert in the spring of 2014. He was described in 2014 as a ridgling,〔 rather than a colt, meaning that he had an undescended testicle. The 2013 catalogue for his yearling Fasig-Tipton sale listed him as a "colt", and he was described that way again in 2015. Zayat claimed the "ridgling" designation was an error: "he was always a colt." The horse is set apart from other race horses by his smooth and distinctively long stride. Baffert has stated, "I've never had a horse that moves or travels over the ground like he does." The most unusual characteristic of American Pharoah during his two- and three-year-old seasons is his short tail—it was apparently chewed off by another horse. It is theorized that Mr. Z, a fellow competitor and Zayat-bred colt, may have been the culprit; the pair were kept together in Florida as younger horses. Trainer Baffert had a more colorful theory: "I think he was in the pasture one day and there was a mountain lion chasing him—that was the closest he could get ..." American Pharoah's gentle demeanor is also distinctive, in that he is fond of people and, particularly for a young racehorse, surprisingly calm around them. As Baffert explained, "Horses of his caliber are not that nice and sweet. They're just sort of tough. If I brought Bayern out here, you can't get near him, he's too aggressive. (Pharoah )'s just so different than any horse I've ever had." He was not always so calm, described initially as "a little bit of a headcase," but Baffert explained that after his anxiety-ridden first race, people worked with him, schooling him in the track paddock for about two weeks, when "all the sudden he got really sweet and really mellow."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American Pharoah」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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