Canadian breeder convinced Justify can capture Triple Crown
There’s no doubt in Canadian John Gunther’s mind Justify will capture the American Triple Crown.
The impressive three-year-old won a soggy Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 5 to improve to 4-0 lifetime. Justify is the early 1-2 favourite for the Preakness on Saturday at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.
But Gunther, who bred Justify, is convinced the horse will not only win the Preakness but become the 13th horse to capture the Triple Crown, and just the second since 1978.
“What happens is the horses that were beat in the Derby, their trainers and owners don’t want to run them in such a short period of time because the Preakness is only two weeks after the Derby,” Gunther said. “Also, every time (trainer) Bob Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby and gone to the Preakness, he’s won the Preakness every time so the chances of Justify winning are highly favourable.
“The Belmont is three weeks after the Preakness but this horse is bred to get the (11/2-mile) distance ... Put it this way, if he gets into the starting gate for the Preakness and Belmont, I think he’ll win the Triple Crown.”
Justify was bred at Glennwood Farm in Versailles, Ky., which is owned by Gunther, of Langley, B.C., and run by his daughter, Tanya. Scat Daddy, a Grade 1 winner, was bred with Stage Magic, a mare owned by Gunther, to produce the eventual Derby champion.
Justify was a US$ 500,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by China Horse Club and Maverick Racing. Gunther said Justify looked every bit a champion.
“When Justify was a yearling, he was a big, strong individual with a great walk,” Gunther said. “He almost looked like a twoyear-old.
“He’s like 17 hands high, he’s a very big, strong horse and has terrific athletic ability. If you looked at hundreds of yearlings you could see that just by looking at him. He had ”it,“that was very evident.”
Justify is Glennwood Farms’ first Derby winner but joins a long list of successful horses bred or co-bred by the operation. Some notables include: First Samurai (Grade 1 winner, $915,075 earnings); Mo Town (co-bred, Grade 1 winner); My Miss Sophia (second ‘14 Kentucky Oaks); Stay Thirsty (co-bred, Grade 1 winner, $1.936 million earnings); Stevie Wonderboy (co-bred,’05 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion, $1.059 million); and Tamarkuz (‘16 Breeders Cup dirt mile winner, $1.84 million).
Gunther said his daughter puts a lot of time and effort into the matching of stallion to mare.
“She looks at the stallions standing in Kentucky and has studied pedigrees since she was eight or nine,” he said. “She delves into that pedigree going back several generations and does the same with the mares.
“She’ll spend several hours planning the mating with just one mare and it was her hard work and diligence that picked Scat Daddy to breed to our mare.”
Canadian-bred Northern Dancer, who died in 1990 at age 29, is the most prolific stallion ever but Gunther said Scat Daddy, who died in 2015 at age 11, had a very bright future.