Zayat Living the Dream with American Pharoah (Video)

With his obligations as a student at New York University completed, Justin Zayat, racing manager for Zayat Stables, spent Friday morning at Pimlico Race Course checking up on his family’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner, American Pharoah.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sent American Pharoah and his stablemate, Kaleem Shah’s Dortmund, who was third in the Derby, for their morning gallops at 7:15 in preparation for Saturday’s 140th Preakness Stakes (G1).

It has been a busy week for Zayat, son of prominent breeder/owner Ahmed Zayat. While the rest of his family was in the Middle East and Europe, he prepared for the last of his final exams at NYU, helped broker the sale of Preakness entrant Mr. Z to Calumet Farm and monitored reports from Baffert on what was going on with American Pharoah.

Zayat headed to Baltimore on Thursday shortly after taking his Economic Development final. He will receive his degree in Economics next week. The day after American Pharoah won the Derby, Zayat returned to student life, but he couldn’t completely step away from racing.

“It’s amazing. The last two weeks have just been so surreal,” he said. “It’s been like a dream. Everything has been going by so quickly. It’s been hectic, but to be here with American Pharoah, I wouldn’t trade places with anyone.”

The one-length Derby victory by the Zayat homebred ended several years of frustration for the stable in its quest for one of the most coveted prizes in American racing.

“Our stable, we’ve won a lot of big races, a lot of Grade 1’s, but we were always missing that one huge race,” he said. “We haven’t won a Breeders’ Cup. We’ve run second in the Derby three times. To get that big win, it felt like a big sense of accomplishment, reaching that goal. It’s very gratifying.”

Justin Zayat was involved with the sale of Mr. Z to Calumet Farm Wednesday morning. The Zayats had no intention of running their 13th-place Derby runner against American Pharoah, but Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who handled Mr. Z, set the stage for another one of his clients, Calumet, to buy the colt in time to enter him in the Preakness.

“It did happen quick,” Zayat said. “The horse was doing really well and ‘Coach’ (Lukas) did a really good job with him throughout the year. He wanted to run and at the same time we had American Pharoah and we didn’t want to compromise our Derby winner. Coach really put hard work into the horse and he said, ‘I have a client who is interested in buying him, are you interested in selling?’ I’m a businessman; this is a business for us. Obviously, I still love Mr. Z. I’ll go kiss him if he won. He’s named after my dad.

“They put a good offer in front of us, an offer we couldn’t refuse. I don’t want to keep Coach from running in the race. It’s not fair to him. He worked so hard with this horse every single day. So we made the sale. Both parties are happy.”

Zayat has been active in stable operations during his years as an undergraduate and picked up some more professional experience on deadline negotiations.

“I woke up the day of the draw and didn’t expect to sell Mr. Z,” he said. “Within two hours, he was sold. It went by really quickly.”

Later Wednesday, his father’s namesake, now a rival, drew post No. 3, two stalls outside American Pharoah. Justin Zayat said Mr. Z must be respected.

“He’s a speed horse. I know how tough he is,” Zayat said. “He can always hang around, but I’m worried about all the competition. We’ve got Firing Line to the outside and Dortmund right next to us.”

Firing Line, the Derby runner-up, drew the outside post in the field of eight runners. American Pharoah is on the rail.

“One is not the ideal post position to start from in this scenario, but we’ve got to deal with the cards that were dealt to us. We can’t change it now,” Zayat said. “For sure, I respect Mr. Z and I know Mr. Z is not a horse who has got cheap speed. He really hangs and fights with you until the end. He can definitely do it to Pharoah. For sure, that’s definitely a concern of mine.”

Justin Zayat said he’s ready to start dreaming about the prospect of a Triple Crown should American Pharoah add the Preakness to his roster from post No. 1.

“He’s a horse that is brilliantly fast. He has the talent to do it,” Zayat said.  “We just have to pray for a clean break and a clean trip. He definitely can do it. He’s still in this race to win it.”

While the Derby winner always receives more attention at the Preakness, Baffert said this week that Dortmund should not be overlooked. The son of 2008 Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown set the pace in the Derby and stood up to the challenge presented to his outside by Firing Line for better than 1 1/8 miles.

“Dortmund came in undefeated and he still ran a very gallant race to run third,” Baffert said. “I really thought when they turned down the backside that he would win it, the way he was cruising along, like he did in California. He got a little tired, but since then he’s come back and he’s really trained well. I expect another big effort out of him.

“All of the horses that ran in the Derby that are here, they look like they are training really well. It should be a very competitive race.”

Crowds are part of the Triple Crown series, but it turns out   American Pharoah and Dortmund have sensitive ears.  They wear ear plugs, and Baffert says they’ll be wearing them for the Preakness.

American Pharoah wears them every time he goes to the track, whether for a race or a training session and he wears them throughout every race. Dortmund, a big horse Baffert said would “walk over the top of you” if he got too excited, wears them until he’s in the starting gate and then his jockey pulls a string to remove them.

“Having a lot of people, a crowd around makes Pharoah nervous,” Baffert said. “After his first race, in which he was terrible, we determined he was sensitive to sound.  He’s a very gentle horse, but his ears are so sensitive.  We started putting cotton in them.”

When Baffert felt the visible cotton looked less than sophisticated, he decided to get a pair of earplugs for both his Preakness contenders. Baffert referenced Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year who raced with cotton in her ears, and other trainers who use hoods with blinkers to accomplish the same purpose.

Since they don’t make earplugs for thoroughbreds, Baffert bought plugs made for show horses.

“They cost about $6 a pair,” he said.

Source: Maryland Jockey Club