American Pharoah’s run in Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Sportsperson of the Year reader poll reflected his races: grabbing a short lead early that grew until he was lengths in front of his closest competitors. By the poll’s conclusion on Sunday, he’d tallied 47 percent of the votes, ahead of the Kansas City Royals (29 percent) and Lionel Messi (6 percent).

On Monday, SI announced that Serena Williams, who’d tallied a mere 1 percent in the reader’s poll, had won its 2015 Sportsperson of the Year Award. An icon of the sports world and one of the greatest tennis players in history, Williams — who authored a 53–3 season in 2015 — was certainly a deserving winner.

Yet after American Pharoah’s dominance in the reader poll, disappointment over the official award quickly became evident.

As the responses to the tweets began to flow in, a singular opinion began to take hold:

He’s just a horse.

“Just a horse?”

Let’s back up a bit. The introduction to the SI Sportsman of the Year readers poll states the following:

Cast your vote below for the person in sports (or, in Pharoah’s case, superhorse) you think embodied the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement this year.

In other words, name of the award notwithstanding, which nominee made you go, “Wow, that was amazing, I’m so glad I saw this!” after achieving top honors in his or her sport?

On June 6, the 2015 Belmont Stakes — and first Triple Crown completion in 37 years — registered a 12.3 overnight television rating, the highest rated Saturday afternoon sporting event since the January 10 Ravens vs. Patriots AFC Divisional Playoffs game. That’s 22 million people.

On the same afternoon, Serena Williams won the French Open to capture her no-doubt-astounding 20th Grand Slam title. The ratings for this event registered a 1.88 — a full 21 percent better than in 2014. Simply put: Millions more tuned in to the 2015 Belmont Stakes. They tuned in to see history unfolding, and they were not disappointed.

Let’s set all this aside for the moment. It’s easy to forget rules and stipulations in the heat of debate. As such, it’s important to define our terms.

He’s just a horse.

Only he’s not. They never are.

Behind every athlete, there’s a team beyond the team. Coaches, physical trainers, massage therapists, physical therapists, physicians, specialists, outfitters, the list goes on. Each plays a part in molding the athlete’s career and achievements. The best athletes would be nowhere without their support.

Racehorses are no different. From the head trainer, who oversees and knows everything about the horse’s care and fitness — workouts, walks, downtime, feed type and schedule, vet and farrier care, equipment, and overall mental and physical health, as well as capabilities on the track —to the assistant trainer, the exercise riders (often two regulars: one for galloping and one for breezing), the jockey, the hotwalker, the owner(s), the veterinarian, the farrier, the massage therapist, the physical therapist or rehabilitation specialist, and the groom. The groom is the unsung hero of the racetrack. They know their horses better than anyone else — even the head trainer. A good groom puts his horses before himself, and does not sit down to have a meal until his horses are bathed, walked, watered, fed, and bedded down in clean stalls with fresh leg wraps.

To dismiss American Pharoah as “just a horse” is to dismiss the team that worked so hard to not only support him, but to keep him racing — and winning — after the Triple Crown, instead of hurrying him off to stud. It dismisses the myriad teams of people supporting racehorses all over the country. And unlike other professional sports, an every-day person — you or I — can be a small part of of such a team by owning a racehorse in a partnership. In the past, such partnerships have won the Kentucky Derby.

But what if he was just a horse? What if there was no team there to guide him?

In that case, just a horse shook the sports world. Just a horse shattered racing’s jaded old perception that the Triple Crown would forever be left in the shadows of 1978. Just a horse became Thoroughbred racing’s first Grand Slam winner in history by winning the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Just a horse had the raw talent to compete and win, and the rare mind required to succeed on the sport’s highest levels.

It’s a mind so quiet and focused and friendly that—despite being an intact colt — he welcomed the attention of countless visitors, including one of his biggest fans: a teenage boy with cerebral palsy.

Just a horse made that boy’s year.

Yes, Serena Williams deserves to be SI’s 2015 Sportsperson of the Year. But American Pharoah deserves to be acknowledged as more than just a horse.