Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah Targets Ultimate Glory

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah will aim to become the first horse to win a ‘grand slam’ at the Breeders’ Cup Classic this weekend, in what is set to be the final race of its career.

The three-year-old superstar thouroughbred is a 6-5 favorite to win from Post No.4 at Kentucky on Saturday, despite a nine-week long layoff.

A ‘grand slam’ in American horse racing is won when a horse is victorious at the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Triple Crown races in the same year. American Pharoah is all set to be the first Triple Crown winner to race at the Breeders’ Cup Classic, since the competition’s inception in 1984.

Among the ten horses racing, American Pharoah’s toughest competition in the $5 million-dollar Breeders’ Cup Classic could be European top miler Gleneagles.

Belmont Stakes 2014 winner Tonalist along with Keen Ice and Frosted, who provided stiff competition to the wonder horse at Saratoga, are other prominent names in this card.

American Pharaoh will retire to Colomore Stud in Kentucky next year, and while sad about its prized jewel leaving the business, its owner Ahmed Zayat is excited at the same time with the prospect of making history.

“It’s sad but it’s exciting. He’s a happy, healthy horse, look at him. He knows us. His unbelievable persona, it’s grand,” Zayat was quoted as saying by AllSports.com.

“He is so kind; he’s a beautiful horse. We’re happy that he’s healthy, and that he goes off in his grand finale.”

The owner added: “It’s a Cinderella story. For us it’s the horse of a lifetime, and the one thing I’m most proud of is that he excited all of us, he changed this sport, and he changed all our lives, hopefully for the better.”

After winning the Triple Crown for the first time since 1978, will American Pharoah once again live up to its billing as the greatest horse of this generation? An exciting weekend beckons for horse racing fans around the world.