Pa. Derby could be right fit for Triple Crown winner American Pharoah

PENNSYLVANIA DERBY Day 2014 was the biggest in Parx Racing/Philadelphia Park/Keystone history when a Kentucky Derby winner ran there for the first time after winning the Derby. The 2015 Pa. Derby will be way bigger, if Triple Crown winner American Pharoah makes his final pre-Breeders' Cup start at Parx on Sept. 19.

Sam Elliott, Parx's director of racing, was at Churchill Downs Saturday morning and, after training hours, spent 45 minutes huddled with American Pharoah's trainer Bob Baffert in his Barn 33 office. Elliott was there for one reason - to pitch Baffert on running American Pharoah in the $1 million Pa. Derby.

"He was very gracious," Elliott said. "They are still kind of decompressing from the Triple Crown. After talking to him, we're in the mix. I think they are going to let everything settle down and then decide what they are going to do."

Parx has a significant bonus system in place for its marquee race. Any horse that wins any Triple Crown race gets $50,000 each for the owner and trainer just for coming out of the starting gate. So, if American Pharoah does run in the Pa. Derby, Baffert would get $150,000. So would owner Ahmed Zayat.

That bonus attracted California Chrome last year. The Derby and Preakness winner was not ready to run his best after a long layoff, but trainer Art Sherman got $100,000, as did the owners.

Nothing is definite yet.

It is close to certain that American Pharoah's first race back after his tour de force in the June 6 Belmont Stakes will be in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2. Baffert has won the race seven times. Zayat lives near the North Jersey Shore track in Teaneck.

Baffert has told confidantes he really does not want his Triple Crown winner to lose before he retires to stud following the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31. If you do the date math, the Pa. Derby is a very logical spot, seven weeks after the Haskell, six weeks before the Breeders' Cup.

"We want to pick what's right for the horse timing-wise . . . with the Breeders' Cup as the goal," Baffert said earlier Saturday.

The Triple Crown is condensed into five weeks. It speaks to the quality of the horse that American Pharoah was actually better at the end than he was at the beginning, but running a horse that often is playing with fire. ]

Baffert had no choice then. He now has choices.

"I'll have two runs [before the Breeders' Cup]," he said Saturday. "I just have to decide [which two]."

The trainer said it is unlikely American Pharoah would run only four weeks after the Haskell in the Travers at Saratoga. He probably will also look at races in late summer and early fall in Southern California, where the horse will be stabled after he leaves Churchill Downs this Thursday.

The Pa. Derby bonus also includes $50,000 for winning the Haskell or Travers. So, let's say, for sake of argument, that American Pharoah wins the Haskell. That $150,000 each for running in the Pa. Derby becomes $200,000. And word is there might be a special "added bonus" for Triple Crown winners. If American Pharoah runs in and wins the Pa. Derby, his owner would get $600,000 from the purse. Baffert would get 10 percent of that, so you can see why the bonus just for showing up is so enticing.

"I walked away from that meeting believing that the ultimate decider for what they do is what's best for this horse," Elliott said.

Maybe so, but the money won't hurt either. Nor will the fact that Baffert won the Pa. Derby last year with Bayern, who won in track record time of 1:46.96, breaking a 40-year-old mark, and went on to win the BC Classic in his next start.

Last year's Pa. Derby Day attracted the track's biggest crowd in decades. (Exact numbers are impossible to know since no attendance is taken, but the crowd numbered more than 16,000.) The $10,396,671 handle broke the track record by almost $5 million. So the bonus investment paid off in handle, and California Chrome's appearance was an incredible marketing opportunity for the track and, more important for the bottom line, the Parx Casino across the parking lot. An American Pharoah appearance would be exponentially bigger in every way.

Elliott stayed for the Churchill races Saturday night. Midway through the card, American Pharoah was paraded on the track and in the paddock and posed for photos in the winner's circle. It was some scene for racing fans who simply can't get enough of the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years.

That evening, Elliott, who came to Parx from Suffolk Downs in Boston earlier this year, was introduced to Justin Zayat, who manages Zayat Stables for his father.

"You're on our radar screen big-time," Justin Zayat told him.

Stay tuned.