A crowd of 90,000 at yesterday's Belmont Stakes gave American Pharoah "unconditional love and adulation" as he became horse racing's 12th Triple Crown winner a "seemingly endless 37 years" after the 11th. People "embraced, teared up and made a joyful noise not heard since Affirmed beat Alydar by a head" in the '78 Belmont (NEWSDAY, 6/7). The fans at Belmont Park yesterday "will never forget that in that instant, they were witnesses to history." The race was highlighted by "the thunder of 90,000 fans roaring at each step and the uncoiled mass of body English of 90,000 pilgrims willing this animal to go where no animal had been for the past 37 years" (NJ.com, 6/7). Fans who were there will "remember that sound forever" and remember what they saw (N.Y. POST, 6/7).
American Pharoah "led for every step of the Belmont's brutal 1 1/2 miles." The crowd at the race's end "exploded in celebration, the roar growing louder when louder seemed inconceivable, a prayer of thanks delivered in full throat" (SI.com, 6/7). The winning horse "made 90,000 witnesses sound like 900,000" (ESPN.com, 6/6). The win brought a "roar so loud ... that you probably could've heard it on the Cross Island Parkway" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/7). The atmosphere felt as if all 90,000 attendees "had downed a triple espresso at the same time as the No. 5 horse on the program rounded the final turn" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 6/7).
