American Pharoah aces each test in Triple Crown run

By Larry Fine ELMONT, New York (Reuters) - The mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes is known as the 'Test of the Champion' and American Pharoah passed it with flying colours to become the first horse in 37 years to claim U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. The bay colt rallied from behind to win the Kentucky Derby, dominated in wet conditions to conquer the Preakness Stakes and on Saturday led wire-to-wire on a dry, fast Belmont track to become the 12th horse to sweep the Triple Crown for three-year-olds. Trainer Bob Baffert won the Triple Crown after falling short of the sweep three previous times at the Belmont, the longest of the races, and jockey Victor Espinoza had failed at this last hurdle twice before. After American Pharoah's emphatic 5-1/2 length triumph, widening the gap over the seven other horses in the field as he glided to the wire, Baffert, Espinoza and owner Ahmed Zayat steered all praise to racing's newest star. "We knew we had the horse," said Baffert. "Once Victor got him in the clear and got him into that beautiful mode of the way he just goes over the ground, I just loved every fraction." Baffert said he told the jockey to "go for it" with front-running American Pharoah. "'Put him on the lead, go for it. If he doesn’t make it, don’t worry about it. We tried. We had fun,'" the trainer said of his racing instructions. "And he (American Pharoah) just kept on rocking and rolling. "The Triple Crown is about the horse. I really think the name American Pharoah will always be remembered because he's the one who did it. We are really just basically passengers. "He is just an incredible animal." Espinoza added: "He was special from the first time I ever rode him." Joel Rosario, rider of runner-up Frosted, praised the winner. "My horse ran great, but the horse everybody expected to win won the race. My horse ran really great and we got second place," Rosario said. Zayat said: "It's really about defining the greatness of American Pharoah. "He moves like a Ferrari, he runs like a Ferrari. This is about none of us. This is about American Pharoah and what he means to our wonderful sport." (Reporting by Larry Fine; Editing by Ian Ransom)