Horse Racing Fans are Hungry for a Triple Crown Winner – Can American Pharoah Deliver?

I’m going to let the Northland in on a little secret: I am a fan of horseracing. Now, I’m not the kind who just turns on the race for the Kentucky Derby and watches for a couple hours just to say I did.

I truly enjoy the sport. It’s not even about the gambling part; I’ll turn on a race just to watch on a Tuesday afternoon. There is just something awesome to me about watching a 1200 pound animal run like the wind.
In three weeks, this once extremely popular sport, has a chance to return interest to it once again. With American Pharoah’s victory in the Preakness on Saturday the sport has been given one more chance at a breakthrough. It currently is enjoying its most attended and watched events ever.

The Kentucky Derby has become a must attend event for celebrities everywhere. Anyone who saw the infield at the Preakness could see massive amounts of young people enjoying a day at the track. But that just illustrates the point I’m trying to make.

Right now the sport enjoys days of popularity, it needs more. It needs a horse the public can get behind to cheer and watch every time it races. It needs American Pharoah to do what no horse has done since 1978, it needs him to win at Belmont and capture the Triple Crown.
Now I know that many horses have tried and failed at this attempt. I also know that a few of them were great horses and that American Pharoah may not be as good as they were. I understand that the public will be skeptical about embracing this horse because 13 times since 1978 the Derby/ Preakness winner has failed.

Empire Maker, who is the grand sire (grandfather) of American Pharoah, is a past winner of The Belmont Stakes. This bloodline proves that American Pharoah may be the horse who can easily get the Belmont distance of 1 ½ miles. It is the longest and easily the most difficult leg for any Triple Crown contender. 3 races in 5 weeks may be too much for any horse to overcome and as I write this I have to assume American Pharoah will fail. But I want to believe it will happen and at least for the next 20 days, I will.