By Zahra Al-Kateb
Image Credit: Andrew Hancock for The New York Times
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.”
