American Pharoah ready to roll ahead of Monday work

American Pharoah is “springing around there like a big kangaroo” (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness S. (G1) winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) continued preparation for Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont S. (G1) by galloping 1 1/2 miles over the Churchill Downs main track Sunday morning with exercise rider Jorge Alvarez in the irons. Video of American Pharoah’s morning exercise is available here — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er-9_4FBdnk. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert flew into Louisville Saturday night from his Southern California base to oversee the Zayat Stable homebred’s training. With six days out, Baffert and his team are still maintaining a positive and relaxed attitude. “He looks very healthy and he’s happy; he looks like he’s getting ready to work,” Baffert said. “He knows that he’s getting close to a work so it’s getting pretty tough on him. “When he hit the quarter pole, he (Alvarez) said he wanted to take off so he’ll breeze (Monday) at 8:30 during the break. We’ll probably leave at the half-mile pole sort of like we did last week, and that should be it for him.” With American Pharoah breezing on Monday morning, this will be his second work since his triumph in the May 16 Preakness. His most recent breeze was a half-mile in :48 on Tuesday.

“I didn’t want to wait two weeks to work him (after the Preakness)
because after the Arkansas Derby (G1) when I worked him, he was a little too
fresh,” Baffert said. “He was going faster than we wanted him to.

“This last week, he was more controllable, which is where we want him
a little bit. We don’t want him to go too fast early; we want him to get into
that nice, fast cruising stride that he has.

“When he gets his ears forward and he’s enjoying it and springing
around there like a big kangaroo — we want to see that.”

While Baffert is happy with the way American
Pharoah is training and confident that his horse will run big on Saturday, he
admitted to feeling a mix of emotions going into Monday’s workout.

“I don’t sleep well the night before a work,”
he said. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be a little nervous for the work, hoping that
it’s going to go as planned. The horse is showing me that he wants to do
something and that he’s happy. As long as he’s enjoying what he’s doing, that’s
what you want to see.

“I’m looking forward to it and hope that it goes like it did last week;
it went really smooth and you can tell he’s really enjoying it. Martin (Garcia)
is here to work him and he knows what we’re doing.”

Baffert acknowledged how important
a good break is for American Pharoah to perform well in the Belmont.

“Right now I feel pretty good about him that he’s doing this well,
but he has to break clean,” Baffert said.
“My son Bode and I were talking about Larry Collmus and how he’s going to call
the race and Bode was in the backseat and he goes ‘All I know is I hope he says,
‘And they’re off in the Belmont, and American Pharoah breaks beautifully.’
That’s good, we want to hear that.

“I’m more relaxed and I’ve gotten older so I’ve mellowed out a lot. I
feel pretty confident the way this horse is coming into it, how he needs to
train, getting ready for it. Once I hear the song ‘New York, New York,’ that’s
like our two minute warning; that means its close. Once I hear that song I start
feeling excited, it kind of livens it up a bit, just like when they play ‘My Old
Kentucky Home’ … you know it’s coming.”

In other Belmont S. news,
Donegal Racing’s Keen Ice (Curlin) jogged two miles Sunday with exercise rider
Faustino Aguilar in the irons for trainer Dale Romans. He is scheduled to
breeze Tuesday morning and will leave at 10 a.m. for an 11:30 flight to New
York. American Pharoah will be aboard this same flight.

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