Two down for Justify

Battles Magic, mud to hard-fought win

BALTIMORE — Justify endured the most difficult race of his career and came away a step closer to becoming trainer Bob Baffert’s second Triple Crown champion in four years.

The heavy 2-5 favorite jumped out to the lead, surrendered it briefly to Good

Magic and roared back, holding off several hardcharging challengers to win the Preakness through a cloud of fog on a sloppy, slippery track yesterday.

Justify has the chance at the Belmont Stakes in New

York on June 9 to do the same thing Baffert’s American Pharoah did in 2015.

“Right now, I don’t see why not,” Baffert said.

Just getting through the

Preakness was a test for the Kentucky Derby champion. The start wasn’t a problem, but Derby runner-up Good Magic pushed Justify along the back stretch and Bravazo and Tenfold made up ground at the end before the wire.

“You could tell he was in a fight the whole way,” Baffert said. “He’s just a great horse to handle all that pressure and keep on running.”

As Baffert was praying for the wire at Pimlico, Justify won by a half-length. Bravazo edged Tenfold for second, and Good Magic was fourth, running out of gas at the end of the 13⁄16 -mile race.

“It just wasn’t a good trip,” Good Magic trainer Chad Brown said. “I would have liked to see a different scenario, maybe where we’re just off the pace a little bit, we weren’t getting pressed on the fence the whole way. Disappointing.”

That almost happened to Justify, who won his first four races by a combined 211⁄2 lengths. Jockey Mike Smith was worried when he saw Good Magic over his shoulder and when Justify slipped early, and he was hoping there was enough left to get to the wire.

“He got a little tired,” Smith said. “This is his hardest race that he’s had.”

Smith won the Preakness for just the second time in 17 tries, 25 years after his first aboard Prairie Bayou.

Baffert tied veteran D. Wayne Lukas’ record with his 14th victory in a Triple Crown race and matched 19th-century trainer R.W. Walden with his seventh Preakness title. Baffert also remained undefeated with Derby winners in the Preakness following Silver Charm, Real Quiet, War Emblem and American Pharoah.

“I’m so happy that we got it done,” Baffert said.

AP PHOTOS CROWN STILL ALIVE: Justify with Mike Smith atop celebrates after winning the 143rd Preakness at Pimlico yesterday in Baltimore. Bravazo (8) with Luis Saez aboard was second, with Tenfold (6) and Ricardo Santana Jr. third.