Before his name was on the lips of horse lovers, American Pharoah was known simply as Hip No. 85 and drawing attention two summers ago for all the wrong reasons. He was a large, lovely bay yearling with a tiny scrape on the back of his front ankle that was beginning to swell. His sales price was dropping each time prospective buyers watched him walk amid the barns at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in upstate New York.
Jeff Seder and Patti Miller believed No. 85, nicked up or not, was the best horse on the grounds, and they told his owner and breeder, Ahmed Zayat, not to sell him.