American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise Paperback – Illustrated, April 11, 2017

I had followed American Pharoah since his 2 year old year, so I know the whole story, so I wasn't sure how much I would like the book. I LOVED it! Great account of the Champ's march to the Triple Crown. Great insights from Bafferts and the other folks behind the scenes. Really enjoyable. I recommend it not just for those who love horses, but for anyone who appreciates a great sports story. A great job by Joe Drape.

Ordered on a whim, when it arrived, when I saw the large print, I surmised it to be a kiddie book. Absolutely NOT....this little gem is very well written, most informative and hard to put down. What a good value!

This is a very good and interesting book. Some of the vignettes are so touching: Baffert visiting 'Charm before last year's Derby especially. And the chunks of background information are so illuminating: breeding for speed over strength. But this book was written in a hurry and it shows. Very slapdash writing and very little if no editing. Joe Drape is always fun to read in a column but his syntax really breaks down in book length. And there are some real howlers. Del Mar has NEVER been California's "premier track." There is just no comparison between Del Mar's schedule and Santa Anita's, even before Santa Anita picked up Hollywood Park's races and that's been a couple of years now. In fact, people familiar with both tracks are still trying to figure out how DM is going to host the Breeders' Cup. Maybe part of the package will be to asphalt the entire parking lot? Sometimes Drape waxes so poetic that he loses control. Has Drape ever actually been to SA? Yes the San Gabriel mountains form a beautiful backdrop to Santa Anita but they start 20 miles away as the crow flies. Horses exercising at SA are NOT breathing "crisp mountain air." They are breathing sea level, urban Arcadia air--in the old days, before the Clean Air Act, you wouldn't have been able to see the mountains for the smog.One of the best things about this book are the references to past horses and races, Drape is so immediate in his descriptions and in this day and age, all of those races are available on Youtube. You can read about a duel and then watch it.Also, because the book is about last year, some of the campaigners were still around this year--Frosted! Om! And, of course, 'Chrome shows up over and over. But I don't think this is a book for a novice. Partly because of the way it bounces back and forth among topics--Drape first mentions Baffert without any background, if you didn't know who he was, you wouldn't find out until the next chapter. I can understand that trying to weave several stories to make sense would be a challenge but I don't think that Drape quite solved it. I knew what he was writing about and even I shook my head now and then and reordered paragraphs. It's no good faulting a book that is focused on a thing, in this case, the Triple Crown, but the Breeders Cup gets lost a bit. But by 2015, the BC races are huge; the purses are huge, winning a BC race is huge, just ask Arrogate. Saying Point Given can never be considered a "great" race horse because he didn't win the K Derby. POINT GIVEN "2001 Eclipse Champion 3 YO Colt & Horse of the Year.Only horse in history to have won four $1m races in a row: the Preakness, the Belmont, the Haskell Invitational and the Travers." What does Drape want?But it's a fun book and I'm glad I'm reading it; it's just a little crazy.

Horse racing, training & the people involved tell a great story!

When a writer starts with a great story, it's kind of hard to ruin it. Well, Joe Drape did a real good job with this Triple Crown story. I thoroughly enjoyed reliving the journey of American Pharaoh in 2014-2015. Super heroes take many forms, and an equine one is especially identifiable. This story delves into the trainer, the jockey, the owner, and the sport. However, the center of the story is the accomplishments of AP. Everyone is humbled by this great horse. The saddest part is predictably the last race of his career at the Breeder's Cup. It is in this race where AP cements his legacy as the greatest horse since Secretariat. It is also his swan song, and in a matter of days after his victory, he is whisked off to begin his new life as a stallion. For all of the central characters in this story, it was time to say good bye to the greatest horse that had ever entered their life.

Really entertaining read even if you aren't a big racing fan. I bought as a gift for my mom who enjoyed it so much that I picked it up when she was done. Starts literally at conception of American Pharoah up to early 2016. Real sense of the people involved in the rise of this horse and of the horse himself. Great writing with a real personality.

Drape is an incredible reporter first. The level of detail is incredible. I know horse racing and I learned a lot.Drape is a wonderful writer too. The book has countless admirable turns of phrase.The characters come off as they would in a finely crafted novel.I loved this book.

Being the great horse he is, American Pharoah is certainly deserving of a book about him. However, this book fell a bit short of giving him the glory he deserves in my opinion. There was way too much personal information (often with a negative tone) about his owner, and not near enough detail about the horse himself, especially the races. The Breeders' Cup Classic is glossed over without even a play-by-play of the race which definitely should have been greatly expanded. I am happy I bought the book but would love to see a revised edition with more detail about his sweet, friendly personality and DETAILED accounts of the races - especially The Belmont and Breeders' Cup.

An excellent book.

Very good read shame the owner of the horse is such a bad person but at least the writer doesn't dodge this and explains fully what went on. Five stars

He is an awe inspiring horse!

Wonderful story about an incredible animal.

I read this book with high hope of learning more of the behind the scenes story. What it really is a collection of all the media published articles. If you were a horse racing fan and actively followed Bloodhorse or DRF, you pretty well know everything that's in this book, other than some of the stories from when AP was a yearling and his earliest training. I also didn't know the full bonuses etc related to the stud deal. There could have been so much more detail on the behind the scenes dealings following the Travers loss or more indepth about Zayat stables and it's owners.I assume this is because it seems most of the book is cobbled from outside new sources and not a lot of direct conversations with the connections of the horse. In the end, It's a good read and a great compendium of stroy of American Pharoah, but it pales in comparison to Bill Nacks "Secretatiart" or Laura Hilldenbrand's "Seabiscuit", which is a sham.