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In the decades since Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978, 13 horses came to Long Island having won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. None of them could cross the line first at the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes.

Until Saturday, June 6, 2015.

American Pharoah never trailed, winning the Belmont Stakes in 2:26.65 to become horse racing’s 12th  Triple Crown winner and first in 37 years.

“The way he hit the ground, you couldn’t even feel how fast he was moving,” Jockey Victor Espinoza said on NBC.

American Pharoah went wire-to-wire in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

“I’m very emotional,” Trainer Bob Baffert said. “I’m thinking about my parents. I wish they were alive to see this.”

 

The history-making horse joined Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed (1978) in the pantheon of horse racing greatness.

“New Yorkers, all racing fans, this is for you,” Owner Ahmed Zayat said, as he hoisted the Belmont trophy.