At long last, the Triple Crown drought is over.
American Pharoah led all the way to win the Belmont Stakes by 5 ½ lengths on Saturday, becoming the first horse in 37 years to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — one of the sporting world's rarest feats.
The bay colt with the unusually short tail defeated seven rivals in the grueling 1 1/2-mile race, covering the distance in 2:26.65 to end the longest stretch without a Triple Crown champion in history.
American Pharoah is the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to win three races on different tracks at varying distances over a five-week span. He won the Derby by one length on May 2 and then romped to a seven-length victory in the rainy Preakness two weeks later.
Trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Víctor Espinoza ended their own frustrating histories in the Triple Crown. Baffert finally won on his record fourth Triple try, having lost in 1997, 1998 (by a nose) and in 2002. Espinoza got it done with his record third shot after failing to win in 2002 and last year on California Chrome.
Frosted finished second and Keen Ice was third.
American Pharoah joined the ranks of Triple Crown winners Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed.
Espinoza, who is single, grew up one of 12 kids on a farm outside Mexico City, where he once negotiated the capital's famous snarled traffic as a bus driver.
Espinoza took riding lessons after high school and attended a jockey's school in Mexico. He rode his first winner at Mexico City's Hippodromo de las Americas in 1992. The following year, he immigrated to Northern California, where he was the leading apprentice rider at Bay Meadows and then Golden Gate Fields.
Eventually, he made his way to Los Angeles, where his career took off in 2000.
