In early June, American Pharoah won thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. According to ESPN, there were 94,128 $2 win tickets placed at Belmont Park on the horse. Of those, more than 90,000 tickets were left uncashed, to be kept as souvenirs.

The crowd exceeded 60,000 fans at his next race, the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, and national television viewership more than doubled for that event, over the previous year. Now, we will watch American Pharoah, in awe, a few more times, debate if and when he will race next, and then watch as he is retired too soon for our liking. As the first thoroughbred Triple Crown winner in 37 years, American Pharoah will probably make his final start in this year’s Breeders Cup. And then move on to an extremely lucrative stud career, out of the media spotlight.

The fact that American Pharoah even set foot back on the track after his Belmont victory is a testament to owners who want to share his incredible talent with the world. But soon it will end, and racing fans will hope it doesn’t take 37 more years to see another horse like him.

At the moment, harness racing is at a point where the retirement of our stars is not front of mind. An amazing 11-year-old gelding named Foiled Again recently made his 236th career start and is still regularly pacing sub-1:49 miles. He has earned $7.1 million and looks to be far from done his truly remarkable career.

Wiggle It Jiggleit, the racing star of 2015, may be as talented a three-year-old as we’ve seen in years. He is also a gelding. With no stud career waiting for him, we can look forward and hope for another incredible run on the track, like San Pail, Admirals Express and Gallo Blue Chip before him.

And then there’s horses like EL Titan and Father Patrick - two champion trotters who recently began careers at stud, and still continued to race. Add in the likes of Daylon Magician, Archangel, Up The Credit and Santanna Blue Chip, who have been brought back to the racetrack after going to stud.

Attempts have been made to keep four-year-olds on the track, including prestigious stakes events like the Prix D’Été and Confederation Cup, and the efforts by Jeff Gural and The Meadowlands. The “Gural rule” makes the offspring of studs retired at age three ineligible for certain stakes. Industry buy-in on the rule is waning and perhaps it’s not surprising. The urgency is at an all-time low.

But when the next Somebeachsomewhere or American Pharoah comes calling, will harness racing be able to keep him racing?

While the current strategies may be far from perfect, we should use this period of quiet as an opportunity to capitalize on our next racing star. We need to encourage more four-year-old racing, examine strategies to keep our best horses on the track, while breeding, and look at ways to use these stars as a catalyst to drive interest in the sport.

American Pharoah will not elevate horse racing to new highs on his own, but his presence on the track sure doesn’t hurt.

Darryl Kaplan
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