By Jill Williams
The sport's first Triple Crown winner since 1978, American Pharoah famously went through Fasig-Tipton's Select Saratoga Yearling Sale in 2013 only to be bought back by his breeder to race as a homebred. He spent eight months at Taylor Made Farm before the sale; Mark Taylor, who has had his hands on a lot of nice horses, distinctly remembers him.
“It's kind of a microcosm of this industry: when you think you have it figured out, you don't have it figured out. He was born at Vinery, then went to Tom Van Meter. We got him in December of his weanling year; he stayed with us through the Saratoga sale, so we had him December through August.
“This is no revisionist history; he was not the highest-regarded yearling on our farm.”
Taylor continued: “He was a very, very nice horse, very well balanced. Great body, great muscle, very correct, huge walk, touch long in his pasterns. I've looked back on our notes and he got into Saratoga on his physical. He was a nice horse, but he went up there and, really, everybody looked and said, 'Zayat Stables bred this horse, they're not going to give him away. I'm not really going to risk that much on a Pioneerof the Nile right now.' If you look back on it, Pioneerof the Nile had 2-year-olds when he was a yearling. We must have had 20 people ask what the Zayats would take for this horse; they really did want a lot for the stage Pioneerof the Nile was at in his career and we didn't get him sold.
“In the end, we had the Triple Crown winner right there in front of us, right in front of all the best judges of horseflesh, and no one took a swing. It was amazing. It's a cautionary tale that you have to give every horse a chance.”
American Pharoah (2012 bay horse, Pioneerof the Nile–Littleprincessemma, by Yankee Gentleman)
Lifetime record: Horse of the Year, Ch. 2yo colt, Ch. 3yo colt, MGISW, 11-9-1-0, $8,650,300
Breeders' Cup connections: B/O-Zayat Stables, LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Victor Espinoza.
Current location: Coolmore America/Ashford Stud, Versailles, Ky.
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