2015 Breeders' Cup Classic
| Breeders' Cup Classic | |
| Location | Keeneland |
|---|---|
| Date | October 31, 2015 |
| Winning horse | American Pharoah |
| Jockey | Victor Espinoza |
| Trainer | Bob Baffert |
| Owner | Ahmed Zayat |
| Conditions | fast |
| Surface | Dirt |
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The 2015 Breeders' Cup Classic was the 32rd running of the Breeders' Cup Classic, part of the 2015 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships program. It was run on October 31, 2015 at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky.
Triple-crown winner American Pharoah was heavily favored for the race and won in a wire-to-wire performance. In doing so, he became the first horse to complete horse racing's "Grand Slam", consisting of America's four most prestigious races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic.
The Classic was run on dirt at one mile and one-quarter (approximately 2000 m) with a purse of $5,000,000. It was run under weight-for-age conditions, with entrants carrying the following weights:
American Pharoah (program #4) was made the 6-5 morning line favorite based on his wins in the Triple Crown and Haskell Invitational. However, he lost the Travers Stakes in late August, after which his owner Ahmed Zayat had contemplated retiring the horse. "My gut's saying if the horse showed me he's tailed off, that he's not the Pharoah I know, then there's no question in my mind that the right thing is to retire him," said Zayat shortly after the race. "He doesn't owe me or anybody anything."
A few days later, Zayat had reconsidered and announced that American Pharoah would race once more. "The champ deserves another chance. He won the Triple Crown and deserves to be in the sport's premier year-end event." American Pharoah came into the Classic off a two-month layoff and was also facing older horses for the first time.
The Breeders' Cup Classic was first run in 1984, whereas the last Triple Crown winner before American Pharoah was Affirmed in 1978. Therefore, 2015 was the first opportunity for a horse to complete what journalists dubbed the "Grand Slam": winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Breeders' Cup Classic in the same year.
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