BALTIMORE — American Pharoah, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, appears to glide over the racetrack, a mark of a supremely gifted thoroughbred.

His ability to find yet a higher gear in the homestretch leaves jockeys on opposing horses in awe.

And his pedigree — a son of Derby runner-up Pioneerof the Nile, who is also making a mark in the breeding shed — leaves little doubt that he is a formidable contender to win the Preakness Stakes here today.

But American Pharoah, a gentle horse, does not like big crowds, and that is a real problem during Triple Crown season, when 3-year-old horses are asked to perform in front of more than 100,000 people.

Buried in the chart from American Pharoah’s debut, in August at Del Mar racetrack in California, is a signal that could foreshadow his undoing.

“American Pharoah unsettled in the post parade and warm up, dueled three deep then outside the winner, stalked off the rail on the turn and weakened in the stretch,” it reads.

In fact, the horse who handed the agitated American Pharoah his lone loss in six starts is aptly named Om, after the soothing mantra that is more commonly heard in yoga studios than at the racetrack. Blinkers, used to narrow a horse’s view and keep him focused, had the opposite effect for American Pharoah. He now races without them.

“He just completely lost it,” American Pharoah’s trainer, Bob Baffert, said. “It was just a bad first day of school. But after that, we schooled him, and he’s been a gentleman ever since.”

Sort of. During the walkover at the Derby, a tradition that allows contenders’ connections to escort them on the racetrack to the paddock, American Pharoah became so unnerved by the crowd of people around him and the record 170,513 in the stands that it took several grooms to control the dark bay colt.

“The walkover for the Derby has gotten out of control,” said Baffert, who even stuffs fluffy cotton plugs in American Pharoah’s ears before every race to avoid such occurrences. “There’s too many people. It was like walking your horse through Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve. And they were yelling and screaming and running next to him and taking pictures, so it got him a little stirred up.”

His aggressive behavior, noted by horseplayers as a bad omen because it saps strength, continued in the paddock and on the racetrack, until he was loaded into the starting gate.

“He started becoming very hyped, and he was using a lot of energy, and I got very nervous because that’s the first time I’ve seen him do that,” his owner, Ahmed Zayat, said.

American Pharoah arrived in Baltimore on Wednesday a champion, multiplying the number of people who wanted to catch a glimpse of him. A group of about 100, including a small army of security guards, gathered in the shadow of the clubhouse to watch him walk off the van and into his barn.

He was well behaved, even stopping to pose for pictures, but Baffert was taking no chances with his prize colt. When it came time to get him settled, he was led into Stall 30 in the middle of the barn, instead of into the spot reserved for the Derby winner, Stall 40 on the corner, for all to see.

As was the case at the Derby, wood barricades prevented fans and the news media from going too close. It does not help that Dortmund, the third-place Derby finisher who was previously undefeated, is also under Baffert’s care, drawing even bigger crowds.

Both colts have characteristics that make them stand out: American Pharoah has a short bob of a tail and Dortmund has a hulking frame.

“They’re all like my children, they all have their own personalities, they all have their quirks,” said Baffert, who has won the Derby four times and the Preakness five times. “Dortmund is just a quirky, big, awkward kid. He’s also gentle, but he gets a little bit excited and he’s quick on his feet, so you want to make sure he doesn’t step on your toes.”

But it is American Pharoah’s tail that really makes Baffert light up. When the colt arrived to Baffert’s stable, he barely had one at all, the result of another young horse — some say it was the Preakness contender Mr. Z — chewing it off in a field.

“The legend goes that he was running wild in a field and a mountain lion was chasing him and that’s as close as he could get to him,” Baffert said, chuckling. “But nobody really knows.”

For as much as Baffert likes to joke about the tail, he wanted to correct it with an extension — which like premium human extensions are made with real hair — to make him “look prettier.” But Zayat did not agree.

“I said: ‘No, it’s kind of unique. How could you not spot him in the morning? Keep it, it’s fun,’” Zayat said.

There is no doubt that American Pharoah’s connections are having fun on the Triple Crown trail. They are not worried about him acting up again, they said, because the Preakness has only seven other contenders, and they are saddled on the turf track, far from the crowd.

“In the Derby you’re saddling in a very confined area with 20 horses,” Zayat said. “In the paddock area there are hundreds of people. It’s claustrophobic. You literally cannot move. It’s like sardines. So I’m not really nervous about him losing the Preakness because of anything like that. I’m just nervous because he’s coming off two weeks and he ran a hard race.”