American Pharoah dazzles down on the Kentucky farm

American Pharoah Coolmore tickets: Sold out through May. Tickets are released gradually, so get on the e-mail list for notification at www.visithorsecountry.com/coolmore/. American Pharoah has appeared at every Coolmore tour since they started in January, however, there are no guarantees. Also, it has only been in the last few weeks they let people get close to him.

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VERSAILLES, Ky. — She touched his silky chestnut shoulder and felt like the luckiest person in the world.

Shannon Brown of South Lyon had just met equine royalty, triple-crown winner American Pharoah.

“We almost started crying,” she said, after she and her family stood next to the champ and petted him during their one-hour tour of the Coolmore America stud farm. “He just looked so proud, like he knew what he had done.”

With the Kentucky Derby coming up May 7, everyone in America will be a horse-racing fan for that one day a year. Still, most fair-weather fans lost track of American Pharoah after his triumph last summer. He was the first horse in 37 years to win the triple crown of victories at the 2015 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

Where is he now? Living the good life in the sweet rolling Kentucky countryside.

But here’s where the story takes a twist. Normally, fans never get to see these multimillion-dollar horses, let alone pet a triple-crown winner. But shaken by low interest in horse racing in general, Lexington tourism and area horse farms in 2014 invented Horse Country, a program to open up the secretive racing world to the public. Suddenly, tourists could visit small and large thoroughbred farms, breeders, veterinary clinics and even feed mills. The veil was lifted on the mystique of the insular thoroughbred world.

Now, among the stars you can meet is American Pharoah, who arrived at Coolmore America in November. His new job is nibbling grass, mating with mares (stud fee, a cool $200,000) and greeting the public most afternoons.

With visitors, he is not only a star, he’s a star with good manners.

Coolmore’s groom brought him on a lead out of the stable and walked him around to a stand-still.

The stallion stood calmly as 15 tourists quietly walked up one by one. They touched or petted his neck reverently — some with tears in their eyes. He occasionally turned his head and ears to a sound, but was regal in his audience. His coat gleamed in the late April afternoon sun. His intelligent eye observed the spring afternoon. Only his bridle shouted his famous (and misspelled) name — Pharoah instead of Pharaoh.

“OK, that’s enough,” Coolmore guide Nathaniel Feerick finally said as the last of the photos snapped. The groom walked American Pharoah back into the elegant stone stable and into a large square stall, where they put a blanket over him and gave him something to eat. He munched his feed and swung his tail.

He might have been a super star, but there was also something plain and endearing about the famous bay.

“He was such a good boy,” said Stephanie Sparrow of South Lyon, marveling.

“He was sweet as pie,” another lady said.

After they saw American Pharoah, tourists had plenty of questions.

How much did Coolmore’s owners pay for the breeding rights? Nobody knows, “but you can be sure it was big money,” said Feerick.

How is the horse doing at, you know, his stud duties? “He’s an absolute dream,” Feerick said. That’s important. Some stallions are duds in the equine bedroom.

Do the 14 world-famous stallions at Coolmore race each other around the pasture, reliving their glory days? “Not really,” Feerick said. “They are more interested in the grass.”

Are any mares kept in stables close by? Feerick laughed. “No, the stallions would go cuckoo.”

At Coolmore, visitors see the breeding “shed”, an oak-paneled and padded round arena the size of a gym and as fancy as a fitness center. There, breeding goes on four times a day, seven days a week. Last year 1,900 mares were bred at this U.S. arm of the international Coolmore conglomerate, which stretches from Ireland to Australia.

In fact, a Kentucky Derby favorite Nyquist was bred and born here — his sire (father) is Uncle Mo, one of the Coolmore stallions.

The $20 tickets for the Coolmore tour went on sale last November and quickly sold out. They added more tickets in January and February, and those also sold out, mostly to people in the horse world who knew about the tours and to people with dumb luck (I bought one online in late February). But more tickets are being added all the time, although the schedule must coordinate with the working farm’s primary responsibility — breeding.

When you are dealing with working horse farms, “we will never have tours every half hour all day like the (Kentucky) Bourbon Trail does,” says Anne Hardy, executive director of Horse Country.

Still, American Pharoah is only 4 years old. He has many years to live at Coolmore, so there will be many opportunities for tourists to see him. He may be one of the most famous athletes in the world, but he is not the only famous horse in the area. In 2017, the winningest race horse of all time, California Chrome, will retire to the Taylor Made farm in nearby Nicholasville. At the Old Friends retired thoroughbred farm in nearby Georgetown you can see former Derby and Preakness champion Silver Charm and other former champs. At Lexington’s nonprofit Keeneland race course last week visitors could even wander past stalls of Kentucky Derby horses training for the race, including Nyquist.

A report six years ago revealed that only 22 percent of Americans considered themselves horse racing fans, and most fans were older and dying out.

Now, since January alone, Horse Country has sold 6,000 tickets to various horse-related tours around Lexington. Things are picking up. They don’t know what the long-term trend will be, but they give one horse credit for the uptick.

“I know the trajectory has changed since American Pharoah won,” Horse Country’s Hardy said. “We believe if people get out on the farms they will fall in love.”

Feerick gets to see American Pharoah every day. He also sees the amazing effect the regal horse has on visitors from all over the world.

“People come out and start crying. People come from all over the world. It’s been incredible, We needed a fairy tale horse,” he said.

And the triple crown winner is just that.