“During the race I had no view of the track. The crowd had begun to stand on chairs and benches,” Rasco said. “The only way I knew to fire the camera as American Pharoah approached the finish was from the intensity of the crowd around me yelling and cheering. Based on that, I fired a burst of frames from my camera. I didn’t see any of the horses at the finish. I hoped I timed it right with the crowd guiding me.” –Erick Rasco on his experience shooting the most recent cover of Sports Illustrated
The 2015 Belmont Stakes gave us many reasons to be talking about it this week. After four decades we finally had another triple crown and Sports Illustrated captured an amazing moment of American Pharoah as he crossed the finish line. Many people have been worrying that the sport of horse racing may be dying, but looking at the cover, it seems like even the millennials are trying to get in on the action. Just about every hand that is included in the amazing shot was holding a smart phone trying desperately to capture the moment. Similar to Rasco and the many millennials in attendance, other people decided to take a chance on the horses success as well. All Pro Championships of Louisville lucked out when they signed a deal with Zayat Stables to produce American Pharoah merchandise. They first began with baseball caps, which were produced before the Preakness, but the line was expanded with the Triple Crown t-shirts in honor of the win. Luckily, American Pharoah came through and sent the merchandise into immediate high demand.
American Pharoah merchandise
Most recent cover of Sports Illustrated highlighting American Pharoah’s win
