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American Pharoah Chases Triple Crown With Misspelled Name

American Pharoah, vying for horse racing's Triple Crown, takes short odds into the 147th Belmont Stakes on Saturday. But his name? It's misspelled.
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By Patrick Garrity

American Pharoah got his name by misteak.

The latest, greatest contender for horse racing's Triple Crown takes a sterling lineage and short odds into the 147th Belmont Stakes on Saturday. But his name? It's misspelled.

The letters "a" and "o" in the colt's name were transposed from the usual spelling for an Egyptian ruler when a fan submitted the name through a contest, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. The horse's owners, Zayat Stables, chose the name but didn't catch the typo when it submitted it to The Jockey Club last year.

Image: American Pharoah Morning Workout
American Pharoah gets his bath after his morning workout at Belmont Park Racetrack in Elmont, New York, on Thursday.PETER FOLEY / EPA

Related: American Pharoah Rules the Thoroughbred World

Horses get lots of nutty names and spellings — American Pharoah's sire is Pioneerof the Nile, without a space between the first words — and The Jockey Club had no reason to question it.

"The name request for the 2012 colt American Pharoah was submitted electronically on January 25, 2014, through The Jockey Club's interactive registration site," a rep told the Courier-Journal. "Since the name met all of the criteria for naming and was available, it was granted exactly as it was spelled on the digital name application."

Watch: Coverage of the Belmont Stakes starts at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC.

Patrick Garrity

Patrick Garrity is a news editor at NBCNews.com. In that role, he assigns, edits, reports and writes breaking news stories, and works with a team of reporters covering mainly the daytime hours. He started this role in April 2013. 

Before that he was on the launch team at The Daily — News Corp's "iPad newspaper" — where he spent two years as a news editor.

Prior to that, he worked in newspapers, serving in multiple roles — including associate editor from 2005 to 2010 — at the Burlington Free Press. 

He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two young daughters.