American Pharoah Is Unanimous 2015 Horse of the Year

American Pharoah Unanimous Horse of the Year

HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA – The National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters announced this evening that Zayat Stables’ American Pharoah, the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, was unanimously voted as Horse of the Year at the 45th Annual Eclipse Awards Ceremony at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

American Pharoah becomes the second unanimous Horse of the Year, joining John Henry in 1981, to sweep all votes in the Horse of the Year category. American Pharoah received all 261 votes from the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, Daily Racing Form and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association block of Equibase field personnel and North American racing officials.

American Pharoah also was a unanimous choice for Champion 3-year-old by the Eclipse Award voters. In 2015, American Pharoah won seven of eight races, six of those grade one events, including the Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Haskell Invitational and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was the first horse in 37 years to sweep the Triple Crown and the first to sweep what has been referred to as Thoroughbred racing’s “Grand Slam” of the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He also set a single season earnings record of $8,288,800.

It was also a big night for the American Pharoah team as Zayat Stables won both the Outstanding Owner and Outstanding Breeder awards and American Pharoah’s trainer, Bob Baffert, won his fourth Outstanding Trainer Award. American Pharoah’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, finished second in the Outstanding Jockey category to Javier Castellano, who captured the honor for the third consecutive year.

Spendthrift Farm’s Beholder, undefeated in five starts in 2015, won her third Eclipse Award this evening, taking the Older Dirt Female trophy. Beholder won the 2-year-old Filly Championship in 2012 and was the Champion 3-year-old Filly of 2013.

The NTRA is a broad-based coalition of more than 100 horse racing interests and thousands of individual stakeholders consisting of horseplayers, racetrack operators, owners, breeders, trainers and affiliated horse racing associations, charged with increasing the popularity, welfare and integrity of Thoroughbred racing through consensus-based leadership, legislative advocacy, safety and integrity initiatives, fan engagement and corporate partner development. The NTRA owns and manages the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance; NTRA.com; the NTRA Top Thoroughbred and NTRA Top 3-Year-Old weekly media polls; the Eclipse Awards; the National Handicapping Championship; NTRA Advantage, a corporate partner sales and sponsorship program; and HORSE PAC, a federal political action committee. The NTRA has offices in Lexington, Ky., and New York City. NTRA press releases appear on NTRA.com, Twitter (@ntra) and Facebook (facebook.com/1NTRA).