Saratoga locals hope for American Pharoah sighting

Crown winner’s presence would have ‘weeklong’ effect

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — In a place where images of horses appear on everything from T-shirts to public artwork, the prospect of the first Triple Crown winner in two generations racing at Saratoga Race Course this summer has the locals in an American Pharoah frame of mind.

“I was in two coffee shops this morning and I couldn’t get through them without people saying, Do` you think there’s any chance?’ ” Todd Shimkus, president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday. “This horse is a rock star.”

The nation’s oldest thoroughbred racetrack has history on its side, but fans here and elsewhere in the racing world shouldn’t bet the house on the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years racing at Saratoga.

For American Pharoah’s next race, trainer Bob Baffert and owner Ahmed Zayat might skip a trip to the Adirondack foothills in favor of the Jersey Shore, or they could return the Triple Crown winner to Southern California, where Baffert is based.

Saratoga has more than one option for the horse’s handlers: the Aug. 1 Jim Dandy Stakes and the Travers Stakes, run Aug. 29. The $1.25 million Travers is Saratoga’s biggest race. Nicknamed the Midsummer Derby, the race traditionally attracts the sport’s top 3-year-old horses.

But “the Spa” has faced stiff competition in recent years from Monmouth’s $1 million Haskell Invitational, run Aug. 2. The New Jersey track has lured some of the biggest names for the Haskell by offering appear- ance fees to owners and trainers, a practice the New York Racing Association doesn’t follow.

Zayat has pledged to keep the horse in training at least through the end of the year, and said he would leave selection of the next race to Baffert, a Hall of Famer whose horses have won seven of the Haskell’s past 14 runnings.

Baffert’s luck in the Travers hasn’t been as good. He won the 2001 Travers with Point Given, but the horse came out of the race with an injury that ended his career. In four other Travers, his horses finished no better than third.

The Jim Dandy and Travers weekends pack Saratoga every year, and adding American Pharoah to either would have a major spillover effect that would benefit the entire area in terms of hotel bookings and other tourism spending, Shimkus said.

“This hasn’t happened in 37 years,” he said. “For people to be able to see that history, it would be a weeklong impact, not just one day.”

Wherever he winds up racing this summer, American Pharoah could be making the next-to-last start of his career. He’s expected to make his final run in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Kentucky’s Keeneland on Oct. 31 before being put out to stud in the Bluegrass State.

NYRA spokesman John Durso Jr. said “it’s still too early” to talk about what can be done to bring American Pharoah to Saratoga this summer.

If racing fans had their way, it already would be a done deal.

“This should be the next step for him,” said Jim Stanley, owner of the Tin & Lint bar in downtown Saratoga Springs. “It would probably be the biggest thing we’ve ever seen. The week leading up to the race, people would be all over the town.”