Mexico-Born Jockey Victor Espinoza Taking 3rd Aim at Triple Crown Win The Associated Press
go to original June 3, 2015

Victor Espinoza Talks Triple Crown (TVG Network)

Victor Espinoza is oozing confidence a year after his hopes of riding a Triple Crown winner were dashed in the Belmont Stakes.

He is back with a record third chance at a Triple try, this time aboard American Pharoah, a colt many believe is poised to become the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since Affirmed in 1978.

"If he's 100 percent and he goes there and his energy is good, that's all it's going to take," Espinoza said on a recent morning at Santa Anita. "I'm positive and confident."

Espinoza's assurance stems from how American Pharoah has developed over the five-week Triple Crown campaign.

The colt rallied for a one-length victory in the Kentucky Derby and romped in the rain to a seven-length win in the Preakness. He has a solid pedigree — his grand-sire Empire Maker won the 2003 Belmont to spoil Funny Cide's Triple Crown bid — and Espinoza, along with everyone else, is impressed by the colt's stride in which he nearly floats over the ground.

American Pharoah has left Espinoza with none of the questions he had about humbly bred California Chrome, whose bid ended with a fourth-place finish in the Belmont last June.

Read the rest at Journal Review

Photo: Stronach Media

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