Triple Crown champion’s Breeders’ Cup coronation is top performance of 2015

LEXINGTON, Kentucky; (Jan. 4, 2016) – American Pharoah’s win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic was the top performance of the year based on measurements provided by Brisnet.com, the official data source of TwinSpires.com and the Kentucky Derby.

Trained by Bob Baffert for Ahmed Zayat’s Zayat Stable, American Pharoah earned a 113 Speed and 126.5 Class Rating in winning the $5-million race on Oct. 31 at Keeneland Race Course, making his Classic victory the only performance to earn Speed and Class Ratings of at least 113 and 125 respectively. Speed measures how fast a horse ran while Class is a measurement of performance relative to the competition in the race.

"In a year filled with superlative performances, American Pharoah’s Breeders’ Cup Classic stands tall as an effort that looks to have been good enough to defeat any other horse this year on his or her best day," said TwinSpires.com Director of Communication Ed DeRosa.

American Pharoah won the Classic by 6 ½ lengths, defeating five Grade or Group 1 winners plus a next-out Grade 1 winner and capping a historic season in which the Pioneerof the Nile colt became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. American Pharoah was one of four horses in 2015 to register at least a 110 Speed and 125 Class Rating in the same race. Effinex and Honor Code finished second and third, respectively, in the Classic, while the other—Beholder—scratched from the Classic.

American Pharoah was one of only seven horses to crack the 111 Speed Rating threshold and one of only five to top a 125 Class Rating. American Pharoah has retired to Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky where he commands a $200,000 stud fee for his first season. American Pharoah won nine of 11 races, including eight Grade 1s, and earned $8,650,300.

The top Speed Rating of the year went to Flintshire, who earned a 116 when winning the Sword Dancer Stakes on August 29 at Saratoga. Salutos Amigos was the only other horse to run faster than American Pharoah in a single race, registering a 114 for his Tom Fool Handicap win on March 7 at Aqueduct.

Speed and Class Ratings are available in the Ultimate Past Performances on Brisnet.com and are free to TwinSpires.com players when they wager.