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Going out on top, Without a doubt, the biggest moment of the 2015 Breeders’ Cup was American Pharoah romping home in the Classic and becoming the first horse to win the Triple Crown and the $5 million race. The Classic was first run in 1984, while the most recent Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978.

“I mean, what a horse,” owner Ahmed Zayat said. “The kindest, friendliest, happiest, easiest, most brilliant horse I’ve ever seen in my life. We’ve been very privileged. We owe American Pharoah everything. This race was only about American Pharoah. We wanted him to go out as a winner. I really did not watch the final eighth. I just closed my eyes. I knew it was done, and I got extremely emotional.

Knowing he had nothing left to run for and nothing to save for later, jockey Victor Espinoza turned American Pharoah loose to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic by 6 ½ lengths in a smashing, record-breaking time of 2:00.07*.

Over an incredible slate of racing, American Pharoah rose to the moment and threw down the hammer.

“We want him to go out as a winner,” Ahmed Zayat, owner of American Pharoah, said during the NBC broadcast. “American Pharoah is a winner.”