It’s been four years since American Pharoah defied the odds and won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes in a Triple Crown sweep.
“At that point it had been 37 years in between Triple Crown winners and everyone was starting to say it may never happen again,” Trainer Todd Pletcher said.
“He brought the public back to loving racing, gave them something to root for," said Gary Contessa, a longtime trainer on the New York circuit.
If there was one drawback of American Pharoah's historic victory in 2015, it's that he was retired to a lucrative stud career just four months later.
“How many millions of dollars was he worth? $200 million, $300 million, maybe $400 million?" Contessa pondered.
“Their value at stud is so high it is hard to take that risk to continue running them at four [years old],” Pletcher said. “I guess if there is a silver lining to it, you get to see their babies a little sooner.”
Born two years ago, American Pharoah's first crop of sons and daughters are finally old enough to race, and a few are making their mark at the Saratoga Race Course.
“The one thing I like about the ones we have had is they all have very good temperament, they are very easy to train,” Pletcher said, a two-time Kentucky Derby winner.
Just this week, a filly in Pletcher’s barn named Sweet Melania narrowly missed a second victory of the summer in the P.G. Johnson Stakes. The chestnut broke her maiden in her third career start on July 14.
“She gave us the impression early on she was quick and precocious,” Pletcher said.
Pletcher's old boss, Hall of Fame Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, currently has three sons of American Pharoah in his barn.
“That horse was brilliant; he did something that wasn’t done for a long time so you hope he passes that on and the gene pool is strong," Lukas said.
Lukas will try his luck with American Butterfly in Monday's Grade 1 Hopeful — Saratoga's top stakes race for two-year-olds. During his second start at Saratoga this summer, the colt earned his first career win as a 22-1 longshot on August 17.
“When he won and he won quite impressively, it changed our thinking a little bit,” Lukas said. “You go into it with high expectations but it still has to be proven."
With $120,500, American Pharoah's highest earning offspring in America so far is Another Miracle.
“The greatest attribute of American Pharoah is he had a phenomenal mind,” Contessa said, who trains Another Miracle. “Another Miracle has that same mind."
Another Miracle has won two races at The Spa this summer, most recently in the Skidmore Stakes on August 16.
"He just keeps getting better, and better, and better, and he is as versatile as they come,” Contessa said.
Each trainer with a son or daughter in their barn has big dreams the young thoroughbreds just may follow in their father's mighty footsteps.
“It’s the only thing at my age coming up here, having a two-year-old you think might develop into something is the whole program," Lukas said.
“That’s the kind of horse that makes you want to wake up in the morning and come to work at 4 o’clock in the morning,” Contessa said of Another Miracle. “That’s what every trainer wishes they had in their barn, a horse like him.”
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