SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah has been beaten, finishing second Saturday in the $1.6 million Travers Stakes before a stunned crowd at Saratoga Race Course.
American Pharoah came into the race as the overwhelming favorite, led through most of the mile and a quarter race and fought off challenger Frosted in the homestretch but couldn’t hold off Keen Ice, a horse Pharoah had beaten easily just four weeks earlier in New Jersey.
The upset solidified Saratoga’s reputation as the “Graveyard of Favorites.” Only one of 12 Triple Crown winners has been able to go on and win the Travers.
Keen Ice, trained by Dale Romans and ridden by Javier Castellano, won by three-quarters of a length. American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, had won eight straight races coming into the Travers, including the Haskell Invitational on Aug. 2.