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Wiedmer: American Pharoah a horse worth sharing

American Pharoah, with jockey Victor Espinoza in the saddle, won Sunday's Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. It was the horse's first race since winning the Triple Crown earlier this summer.
American Pharoah, with jockey Victor Espinoza in the saddle, won Sunday's Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. It was the horse's first race since winning the Triple Crown earlier this summer. American Pharoah, with jockey Victor Espinoza in the saddle, won Sunday's Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. It was the horse's first race since winning the Triple Crown earlier this summer.

By Mark Wiedmer 5 min read

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Triple Crown winner American Pharoah wins Haskell in return

The Haskell Invitational done early Sunday evening, Triple Crown champion American Pharoah the expected yet stunningly impressive winner of the race, NBC’s Tom Hammond proclaimed: “Wow. I don’t know what else to say at this point.”

Here’s something that everyone who’s ever cared enough about thoroughbred racing to watch so much as a single Kentucky Derby should say to American Pharoah’s human team: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Nothing in sports is more fragile than the health of a thoroughbred race horse. You’re talking about as much as 1,300 pounds of horse flesh coming down on a single leg that’s not much thicker than the sweet spot on a baseball bat. It’s a tragic accident waiting to happen each time these magnificent creatures break from a starting gate.

Certainly that risk has been there as long as there’s been horse racing, which dates at least as far back as 648 BC in ancient Greece. Injuries, often fatal, are part of the game.