BALTIMORE -- For the most part, Bob Baffert knows his way around the Triple Crown. Immediately after winning the Kentucky Derby with American Pharoah, the Hall of Fame trainer said the Preakness was the easiest of the three jewels -- at least for him. He built his case on a total of five wins in the race, as well as a perfect 3-for-3 record at Pimlico with Derby winners, and voiced little fear in the quick, two-week turnaround between races.
Clearly, the man knows his stuff.
Saturday's Preakness was the textbook definition of easy for American Pharoah. A fierce storm that pelted the track right before post time and turned the main track into a sea of slop couldn't slow him down. A rematch with the second-, third- and fifth-place finishers in the Derby was no problem for him. Fresh challengers posed no threat.
"He was turning down the backside," Baffert said, "and when I saw those ears go up, I thought, "Oh yeah, oh yeah."
American Pharoah won, to borrow Baffert's term, "easily" -- by seven front-running lengths in a $1.5 million race that seemed over shortly after it started.
If there was wetness on anyone's brow during the race, it was simply rain -- not perspiration generated by nerves. Ahead by a length after the opening quarter-mile, the 4-5 favorite ($3.80) remained in cruise control for the rest of the mile and three-sixteenth test, and he glided under the finish line in 1:58.46 with 28-1 long shot Tale of Verve second and Divining Rod third.
"As soon as I took the lead, that was it," said jockey Victor Espinoza, who secured a record third Triple Crown bid with back-to-back Preakness wins.
But now, with two down and one to go, in a New York minute comes the hard part. Baffert is a heartbreaking 0-3 in the Belmont Stakes with his Derby-Preakness winners, which gives him a doctorate in the reasons there has not been a Triple Crown winner since 1978 and the past 13 horses to attempt the sweep have failed.
He knows what awaits him and his brilliant Zayat Stables 3-year-old on June 6 at Belmont Park.
"I know everyone is sharpening their knives getting ready," Baffert said. "Bring them on!" owner Ahmed Zayat said.
For all the disappointment Baffert has suffered in the final chapter of a Triple Crown bid, it is new and fertile ground for Zayat.
Yet now, all of that has been washed away by a horse who just might be special enough to do what Hall of Famers such as Spectacular Bid, Alysheba, Sunday Silence and Baffert's own Silver Charm could not. Perhaps he can be the sport's long-awaited 12th Triple Crown champion.
"I am not just happy for myself and my family and Bob and Victor and [American Pharoah's groom Eduardo Garcia] and every single person, I was honestly happy for the sport," Zayat said. "A sport without a star is not a sport."
On a dark, soggy day at Pimlico, American Pharoah's star burned brightly enough to dry every bit of ground on the soaked track.
That he was victorious by "only" a length in the Derby empowered his detractors and fueled the notion that either Firing Line, who was second in the Derby, or stablemate Dortmund, who was third, could turn the tables in Baltimore. Given that he didn't dominate his field, some took up the skewered belief that the reigning 2-year-old champion was more fiction than fact.
Perhaps the muddy track played a role, but neither Dortmund (fourth in the field of 8) nor Firing Line (seventh after a stumbling start) nor anyone else in the field came remotely close to derailing the express that has Elmont, New York, as its next stop.
"I made a conscious decision that during this campaign, we were not going to hype this horse. I wanted the horse to do the talking," Zayat said. "But a sign of a good horse is whatever you throw in his face, he finds a way to win. Everything went against him [in the Derby], but because of his heart and brilliance, he still won ... He just didn't have the wow effect that he had been doing, demolishing his competition through all the races he'd run as a 3-year-old and even as a 2-year-old."
"All day today, they were asking me, 'How do you feel?' I said, 'I feel very confident.' Not out of arrogance -- the horse gave me that confidence," said the 52-year-old, Egyptian-born businessman who now calls New Jersey home. "I tweeted a few days ago the real Pharoah will show up, and indeed, he put on a show today. I mean, no one came close to him."
"I thought you weren't going to hype the horse?" Baffert quipped.
"I'm stating facts," Zayat said. "Facts are not hype."
"Touché," the trainer said.
Who gets the last word June 6 will be a matter of debate for the next three weeks. Skeptics will point to the drought and a turn of events such as last year, when California Chrome's Triple Crown hopes were crushed by yet another "fresh" horse in Tonalist, who skipped the first two legs of the series. The past nine editions of the Belmont Stakes have been won by horses who sat out the Preakness.
And yet, perhaps there is something magical happening here with a colt that has a misspelled name but a nearly perfect record. After losing his career debut, he has reeled off six straight wins, none as impressive as Saturday's masterpiece that has him knocking on the door of history.
"I've said it since March, [American Pharoah] is special," said Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who trained Preakness fifth-place finisher Mr. Z for Zayat until earlier this week, when the colt was sold to Calumet Farm for a reported $5 million. "This might be the year."
The Belmont Stakes, at a mile and a half, presents a gargantuan challenge that has humbled those past 13 Derby-Preakness winners to tackle it, yet there was something about Saturday that seemingly outweighed all of that.
The Preakness was easy. So easy that it brings to the tip of the tongue words unspoken for 37 years: "Triple Crown winner."
Come June 6, we'll know if they finally fit.