Image Credit: Andrew Hancock for The New York Times
By Zahra Al-Kateb
Over 170,000 people witnessed American Pharoah win the 141st Kentucky Derby on Saturday May 2nd, ridden by last year’s winner Victor Espinoza.
The winning time for the 1 ¼ mile race was 2:03:02
Espinoza, who now has three Derbby wins, said: “He’s been a special horse since I first rode him.”
52-year-old owner Ahmed Zayat has seen his horse come second three times in the previous six years. “I’m speechless,” he told USA Today. “Pharoah is a freak of nature, and for the first time I’m seeing him right now working, working hard. And I knew that if he had the lead, nobody would catch him. He has such brilliance.”
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Zayat came to the USA to study as a teenager from Egypt. He went on to develop beverages before going into racing.
It was the fourth Derby win for American Pharoah’s trainer Bob Baffert. He said: “To win it, never gets old. This American Pharoah, he’s just something…he makes a trainer really look good.”
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