No doubt: American Pharoah is best athlete of 2015

The year is only half over, but the race is complete. We have a winner for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.

Give it to American Pharoah.

Technically, the horse who won the Triple Crown Saturday at Belmont Park is not a sportsMAN. Or a SportsHUMAN. They can work around it. Get your creative team busy on that, SI. Don't let the niggling details bog you down. Just do the right thing.

The Associated Press awards an Athlete of the Year as well. That should be American Pharoah, too. Don't bother waiting to see whether LeBron James finally delivers a championship to Cleveland. Fast-forward through the rest of baseball season. Forget football. The winner should be a horse. Of course.

While we're at it, ESPN should give the ESPYs to American Pharoah. All of them. I don't know what the categories are – I've never watched the show – but if there are envelopes with the names of winners inside, they should all say the same thing.

Why does the colt deserve all the accolades as the outstanding athlete of 2015? That's easy.

Breaking the 37-year Triple Crown drought was an epic achievement, stamping American Pharoah as a sporting legend. Just 11 other horses have done it, and all of them did it in a different era – an era when thoroughbreds were hardier and raced more often. The previous 11 winners were bred and trained to at least make three races in five weeks at three different distances and three different tracks not seem like Mission Impossible.

In the process of doing what many thought could no longer be done, American Pharoah has single-hoofedly revived his sport. Horse racing will never be like it once was, 60 years ago, one of the mainstream sports for many Americans. But this horse did create a buzz racing hasn't felt in decades. The extended, almost endless roars at Belmont Saturday might just echo long enough to bring a new generation of younger fans to the track.

In addition, American Pharoah may have saved the Triple Crown as we know it. A lot of people – myself included – had been advocating for greater spacing between the races to make it a fairer fight. In 2 minutes and 26 seconds Saturday, this horse silenced that debate. There is no need to change the Triple Crown; you just need a special horse to win it. So tradition and the pursuit of true excellence both got a big boost from American Pharoah.

The fact that he is true poetry in motion when competing doesn't hurt, either. What other athlete is as beautiful to watch?

But he's more than just a three-race comet streaking across the sporting sky. American Pharoah is undefeated in 2015 – he's 5-0, winning by a combined 27¾ lengths, including two dominant victories in Arkansas that prepped him for the Kentucky Derby. Just once all year has he been in a real fight – in the stretch of the Derby against Firing Line and Dortmund. Every other race has been a romp.

You want more reasons? I have more.

American Pharoah has never said something stupid in an interview. He's the strong, silent type, keeping his own counsel and letting his actions do the talking.

American Pharoah has never had a made-for-TV special in which he announced he was taking his talents out of trainer Bob Baffert's barn and going somewhere else. He's going to spend his entire career with one franchise.

American Pharoah has never deflated anything, or had a stable hand deflate anything at his behest, or had to issue insultingly ridiculous denials about knowing things had been deflated.

American Pharoah doesn't jeopardize his career with excessive partying. His idea of a wild time is eating a few carrots.

American Pharoah is an excellent teammate. He lets an adult male sit on his back and hit him with a stick, and he never complains. He knows it's good for the team.

American Pharoah has had zero run-ins with the law. He has no problems with females – in fact, he has no relations with females at all. Add chastity to his list of virtues (at least until 2016, when he figures to hit the breeding shed with a vengeance).

Add it all together and this is a no-brainer. American Pharoah is the ideal athlete. Make him Sportsman of the Year, Athlete of the Year, ESPY Winner of the Year, whatever else there is out there for him to win.

Best thing about it: his acceptance speeches will be very brief.