The family behind Zayat Stables is well versed in all of the pressure, excitement, thrills and disappointment wrapped into the Triple Crown.
On three occasions since 2009, Zayat horses finished second in the Kentucky Derby (2009, 2011, 2012). In 2012, they felt the tease of finishing second in all three legs of the Triple Crown with two different horses.
They also felt the frustration of having the favorite for the 2010 Derby in Eskendereya, only to have that colt suffer a career-ending injury less than a week before the Run for the Roses.
Yet for all of that experience in racing's premier series, there's something new brewing for owner Ahmed Zayat's stable on the road to the Kentucky Derby.
The quest is starting earlier than usual.
In past years, Zayat's runners were relatively late arrivals to the Triple Crown chase as they rose to prominence in the winter, long removed from the major summer and fall Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds.
This time around, the future is now. Zayat has the horse to beat in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in American Pharoah, who already has two Grade 1 wins to his credit and can clinch the 2-year-old championship in Saturday's $2 million test at Santa Anita.
"It's exciting because we've had much more success with 3-year-olds than 2-year-olds," said Justin Zayat, the 22-year-old son of Ahmed Zayat who serves as racing manager for his father's stable. "To have a 2-year-old who at this point already has two Grade 1 wins, it's a surreal feeling. He's done everything you could want going into the Breeders' Cup."
As odd as it might seem, even with a roster of horses that includes Triple Crown runners-up Pioneerof the Nile, Nehro, Bodemeister and Paynter, Zayat Stables owns an 0-6 record in the Juvenile with no one finishing better than fifth in the race. Of that aforementioned Triple Crown group, only Pioneerof the Nile ran in the Juvenile, finishing fifth at 32-1 odds some two months before his Grade 1 triumph.
Of the two, American Pharoah, a son of Pioneerof the Nile, is by far the more promising and accomplished and, in Justin Zayat's words, is "progressing very, very well" toward Saturday's showdown for the 2-year-old championship.
Trained by Bob Baffert, who won the Juvenile for the third time last year with New Year's Day, American Pharoah started his career with a disappointed fifth-place finish as a 7-5 favorite in a maiden race at Del Mar. Undaunted, Baffert wheeled the $300,000 yearling purchase back in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, and his 3-1 odds at post time reflected the notion the colt's debut was an aberration.
It was.
American Pharoah cruised to a front-running, 4-3/4-length victory over Del Mar's synthetic surface, and when he returned on Sept. 27 in the Grade 1 FrontRunner and registered a 3-1/4-length triumph on Santa Anita's dirt main track, there was suddenly a new star in the Zayat barn -- in the fall, of all times.
"I've never heard Bob so excited over a horse out of all the years we've been working with him," said Justin Zayat, a senior at New York University in Manhattan. "We've had some very nice success with him, with Pioneerof the Nile, Bodemeister, Paynter and others. But you see a different Bob when he sees this horse. He's sending videos, calling and sending texts all the time."
Baffert's enthusiasm is understandable as he enters the Juvenile with a talented colt who, unlike East Coast rivals such as the Todd Pletcher-trained duo of Daredevil and Carpe Diem, has home-court advantage at the Arcadia, California, track.
"[American Pharoah] has a lot of talent, as we saw in the Del Mar Futurity," Baffert said. "I knew he was going to run well, but I didn't think he was going to do something like that. Then, he came back and just maintained that healthiness. He's sharp, and he's a very exciting kind of horse. It's really fun when you have a horse like that. They're hard to come by."
Of course, the caveat is that success in the fall does not guarantee euphoria six months later on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. Of the 30 horses who have won the Juvenile, only one (Street Sense in the 2006 Juvenile) went on to win the Derby.
It's a reason some horses are brought to the races later in the year so they can avoid the grind of prepping for and running in the Breeders' Cup. Yet with American Pharoah, all systems were go from day one.
"We'll race our horses at two, but there's a fine line between giving them the right foundation and getting them ready for their 3-year-old season," Justin Zayat said. "I learned from Wayne Lukas [the Hall of Fame trainer of Mr. Z] that a horse needs seasoning and foundation to be ready for the Triple Crown. Bodemeister came along later. But with American Pharoah, ever since his first days at the farm, he acted like he wanted to go to the track. He's kind of like a big high schooler in elementary school. He's always stood out from the crowd and has been stronger than the other horses around him.
"In the end, it's pushing the envelope with young horses, and some can handle it and some can't. American Pharoah is giving us every single thing you could want to have a comfortable feeling going into the race. If we can get a good post, we'll see where it takes us."
So far, American Pharoah has taken Zayat Stables into new territory with a sensational 2-year-old campaign. One more win and he'll spark something else new to the Zayats -- Derby fever in November.