Saturday, 6:30am. Belmont Park. A muddy tack and lingering rain greet the morning’s athletes and the backside is soupy. It appears business as usual until golf carts filled with Big Cameras begin zooming past.

“It’s gonna be a loooong damn day,” one security guard quips. “Don’t get no better than this here.”

In just a few hours, the curtain will rise on the gargantuan racetrack just oustide the City that Never Sleeps and the world will watch American Pharoah attempt the impossible. Or, maybe the inevitable?

“This is the horse,” a gypsy-looking woman walking an old pinto pony around one of the barns calmly declares. “This is going to be a special day.”

By 7:00am, excited traffic begins to trickle in from all corners of the sprawling campus like parishioners going to a revival.

Turns out, they were.

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©Horse Collaborative

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Trainer Barclay Tagg (of Funny Cide fame) watches over his workers from the saddle. ©HorseCollaborative

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The immortal 11 Triple Crown champions…

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By a tongue? Not quite, as March and Irad Ortiz (inside) noses past Cinco Charlie in Grade II Woody Stephens Stakes. ©Horse Collaborative

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©Horse Collaborative

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Still with the tongue. ©Horse Collaborative

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The previously unbeaten and imposing 3-year-old colt Competitive Edge in the paddock. It would not be his day, but you can’t win ’em all. ©Horse Collaborative

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Wedding Toast prances off the track after capturing the Grade I Ogden Phipps over Untapable. ©Horse Collaborative

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Ponies on parade. ©Horse Collaborative

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Jockey Javier Castellano gets a leg up from trainer Shug McGaughey on his regally bred colt Honor Code for the Grade I Met Mile. ©Horse Collaborative

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Honor Code roars past Tonalist in the stretch with a jaw-dropping late kick, much to the delight of his rider. ©Horse Collaborative

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When you breed A.P. Indy to a stakes winning Storm Cat mare, great things tend to happen. Like Honor Code. Will he take on the Pharoah later this year? ©Horse Collaborative

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Jockey Johnny Velazquez hops off last year’s Belmont spoiler, Tonalist, following the Met Mile. Tonalist finished 2nd.

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Christophe Clement (bottom right), trainer of Tonalist, watches the Met Mile replay about a half dozen times. The result however, did not change. ©Horse Collaborative

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Just an hour from the Belmont Stakes, and the crowd is heating up… ©Horse Collaborative

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The Donegal Racing ownership group, which seems like 100 people but is actually “around 25”, were out in full force to watch their Belmont horse, Keen Ice, finish 3rd.

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Swaggy Baffert enters the paddock before the big race. ©Horse Collaborative

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The crowded pre-Belmont paddock.

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Errbody want a picture of the Pharoah. Even grandmas.

American Pharoah, just chillin’. (Photo: Flickr ©Diana Robinson)

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Big Victor watches over little Victor. ©Horse Collaborative

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And then there were 12… ©Horse Collaborative

Sunday, June 7

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