"He was very good for me last year, he made a miscue in the Breeders Crown Final. It was pretty devastating because I felt it was going to set up for him to win."
In a recent interview, driver Scott Zeron was asked which three-year-old he was most looking forward to driving in 2016. The reply came quickly, and the name mentioned was American Passport.
One of 58 horses whose connections have made initial nomination payments to the 2016 North America Cup, American Passport put up a 3-3-0 summary from 11 freshman starts in 2015 and banked $209,269 for trainer Tony Alagna, who co-owns with breeder Brittany Farms, Riverview Racing LLC and Jodi Siamis. The American Ideal - Star Of The Show colt took a 1:51.4 mark while winning a division of the International Stallion Stakes at The Red Mile over an off track.
Zeron and interviewer Sam McKee both agreed that American Passport improved a lot in a short period of time at two.
"He did. He showed his true colours in Lexington, winning both weeks in a row pretty impressively so I'm excited to see him come back," stated Zeron.
Coming off his best season for both money ($7,297,365) and wins (300) since relocating to the U.S., Zeron could be altering his driving schedule from how it was mapped out in 2015. That change could see more action for Zeron at Yonkers Raceway in New York.
"You know, now that I've been driving at Yonkers a lot more, it's made it a bit of a tough decision to try to balance Chester, Pocono...when I first got down here, it was just Chester four days a week, Pocono the rest and Meadowlands on the weekends...so it was much easier.
"This year's going to be a little tougher. Yonkers is at my doorstep, a 15 minute drive away, so I'm hoping I can manage that. Pocono might be only one or two days a week, but you know, Chester in the afternoons and Meadowlands on the weekends."