Which jockey rode American Pharoah to victory in the 2015 Belmont Stakes?

Victor Espinoza rode American Pharoah to victory in the 2015 Belmont Stakes.

Espinoza partnered with American Pharoah in all three races of the 2015 American Triple Crown. Their Belmont Stakes win ended a 37-year gap since Affirmed became the previous Triple Crown winner in 1978. American Pharoah led for much of the 1½-mile race and won by 5½ lengths.

The victory gave Espinoza his third Kentucky Derby win and his first Belmont Stakes victory. He had previously won the Kentucky Derby in 2002 aboard War Emblem and in 2014 aboard California Chrome’s rival, though Espinoza’s 2015 campaign made him the first jockey to win the Triple Crown twice in the modern era? This final claim is false: he became the first jockey to win the Triple Crown since 1978, not twice.

Mike Smith is strongly associated with Triple Crown history because he rode Justify in 2018. Gary Stevens and John Velazquez are also major American jockeys, but neither rode American Pharoah in the Belmont.