It is going to be debated long and hard, and passionately from both sides.
Some want Ahmed Zayat, owner of American Pharoah, and Bob Baffert, the trainer, to keep running the Triple Crown winner.
Others say no way. The first Triple Crown winner in 37 years has nothing to prove and runs a higher risk of tarnishing his image or being injured.
Used to be it was almost considered unethical not to run champion horses back for a 4-year-old campaign, but conventional thinking started to change in the 1980s when breeding rights became all the rage. That's where the big money is, and American Pharoah should be retired immediately.
Granted, it has come to light that Zayat sold the breeding rights last January, before American Pharoah's undefeated 3-year-old campaign, for between $8 million and $13 million. Right now those rights would be worth about three times those amounts.
Maybe Zayat needs the money.
Whatever, should he really consider risking the horse's reputation to add $2 million or so in earnings to the $4,530,300 his horse has already banked?
Perish the thought, but horses break down and have to be euthanized way too often as it is.
American Pharoah has earned the right to be retired and become a sire.
The international breeding organization Coolmore Stud made the deal for American Pharoah, and while it doesn't take over control until the first of the year, it might be time for that group to offer a bonus to Zayat for AP to trot off into the sunset as the greatest thoroughbred racing hero in almost four decades.
Let's see if he can become the daddy of other champions.
The Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year should be in the bag and purists who want him to beat older horses in the Breeders' Cup should ask themselves what they would do with the horse who right now would probably command a stud fee north of $100,000.
American Pharoah proved himself in Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland and New York by being the best in every race he competed in this year.
His landmark victory should also make Oaklawn Park a top destination for horses preparing for the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes.
It wasn't until 1983 that Oaklawn became a player on the national scene and that was when Sunny's Halo, winner of the Arkansas Derby, won the Kentucky Derby.
Since then, Oaklawn Park has become a major player as a place to launch 3- and-4-year-old campaigns.
None of the previous 11 winners of the Triple Crown raced at Oaklawn -- although it has been widely written Secretariat, Kelso, Nashua, Sunday Silence and Bold Ruler preferred to drink Mountain Valley Water -- American Pharoah's connections wanted him in Hot Springs for his two races as a 3-year-old.
And in a year when its main competitor on the Derby prep schedule, the Blue Grass Stakes, was moved back a week in the belief running four weeks before the Kentucky Derby would help draw better horses.
American Pharoah stomped that myth into the ground during the Triple Crown.
He cannot distinguish himself anymore than he already has as a true champion.
The only reason for Zayat to run American Pharoah again would be the purse money, and if Zayat does run him some might ask why he said he loved his horses like family.
There is little chance of him catching all-time money earner Curlin, who earned $10,501,800 in his career that included winning the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby in 2007.
There's that connection again, and Curlin ran 16 times in his career.
American Pharoah should run only seven.
Sports on 06/09/2015