Triple Crown winner American Pharoah tours Monmouth Park

Only a select few have been able to ride Triple Crown-winning horse American Pharoah, but with the help of some incredible footage from GoPro, you cannot only get a feel for what it would be like to jump into the saddle, but you can enjoy a 360° view.

American Pharoah arrives at Monmouth Park Triple Crown-winner American Pharoah arrives at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., on Wednesday, July 29, 2015, in preparation for the Haskell Invitational on Sunday, August 2.

This will be American Pharoah’s first race since he swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes and became the 12th Triple Crown victor and first in 37 years.

“We did this to honor the horse”, said Dennis Drazin, a management consultant to the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which owns Monmouth, at Thursday’s post position draw.

In his next start, Affirmed finished second in the Travers Stakes – also at Saratoga – as Alydar, who finished second in each of the Triple Crown races, finally got his number.

“It’s a long trip”, said Jimmy Barnes, Baffert’s assistant who accompanied American Pharoah. “Usually the first day we’ll do something light”.

When that idea didn’t float, Monmouth announced the purse increase on Wednesday, although several insiders are convinced the increase, the final inducement for Zayat to run his horse in his home state, was finalized earlier in the month.

With nothing short of a smashing impact on business expected on Haskell Day, Kulina is also looking at the broader picture – what American Pharoah’s presence at Monmouth Park will mean down the road for the track, whose very existence was in jeopardy just several years ago.

“The Haskell has been called the fourth jewel of the Triple Crown”, said Bob Kulina, president of Darby Development LLC, operators of Monmouth Park Racetrack, in a press release.

“He’s a runner. He’s a race horse and what an athlete he is”. “We feel positive. We’re just having fun with him”.

“Needless to say, there’s no pressure on us”, said Mr. Jordan’s trainer Ed Plesa Jr. We left Del Mar around 1:30 in the morning, flew out of Ontario, California, stopped in Lexington, Kentucky to refuel and then no traffic from there. I doubt that is a very likely ending, but I can see where they might think that. As far as which horses will actually run, he said, “I’m not sure what we are doing”. We’re busing in more than 200 mutuel tellers.