Horse racing-American Pharoah aces each test in Triple Crown run (Reuters)
By Larry Fine ELMONT, New York, June 6 (Reuters) – The mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes is known as the ‘Test of the Champion’ and American Pharoah passed it with flying colors to become the first horse in 37 years to claim U.S. thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. The bay colt rallied from behind to win the Kentucky Derby, dominated in wet conditions to conquer the Preakness Stakes and on Saturday led wire-to-wire on a dry, fast Belmont track to become the 12th horse to sweep the Triple Crown for three-year-olds. Trainer Bob Baffert won the Triple Crown after falling short of the sweep three previous times at the Belmont, the longest of the races, and jockey Victor Espinoza had failed at this last hurdle twice before.