A Glass Of Gin For A Pharoh Analysis

A Glass of Gin for a Pharaoh

As the commentator 's voice heaved desperately for air, he shouted with passion and stark excitement, "And down the stretch they come! It 's 'Go For Gin ' digging in and holding on! He is going to win the Kentucky Derby!"

I recall it vividly as if only a second has passed. I was sitting before my telly on the first Saturday in May 1994. A few months before, my parents had moved into their own home. It wasn 't a Hollywood Hills ' mansion but it was theirs and they were proud. This was my first Kentucky Derby race live and the commentator 's words in the closing furlong got me hooked to horseracing like white on rice.

The mere words repeated here are an injustice to the moment. The goosebumps like the Rocky Mountains

Like Affirmed in the 1978 Belmont Stakes, American Pharoah drew the fifth post. Similar to another Triple Crown legend Secretariat, he led virtually wire-to-wire (from start to finish). It was an fulgurous run and one of the fastest Belmont 's ever.

Statisticians will tell you, of the 12 Triple Crown winners, American Pharoah 's final half-mile and quarter-mile times are otherworldly. None have finished the race with such vitriolic speed. As the gods will remind us, before we become inebriated in the present, only Secretariat of the 12 has run the entire Belmont faster.

I 'm extremely happy for trainer Bob Baffert, who over the years had his fair share of Triple Crown near misses. Silver Charm (1997) and Real Quiet (1998) are the first that spring to mind from my early fixated years. Real Quiet lost the Triple Crown by the smallest margin in history, a nose, or specifically four inches. There was also War Emblem (2002) who foiled out of the gates at the Belmont and dashed his run to immortality. Likewise, there was Hall of Fame horse Point Given (2001) who faltered in the Derby but eventually lived up to the hype when the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes came around. This time though it all came together for