Justify aims for Preakness
Baffert’s Derby champ to face weakened field
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Newly anointed Kentucky Derby champion Justify is shaping up as an overwhelming favorite for the May 19 Preakness, with many of his top rivals uncertain to be in Baltimore for the second jewel of the Triple Crown series.
Bob Baffert said the strapping chestnut colt came out of his commanding Derby win in excellent form. In fact, thoroughbred racing’s newest star seemed to enjoy pulling his whitehaired trainer around Sunday morning as they both came out of Barn 33 at Churchill Downs to pose for photographs.
“If he stays healthy and he looks good, I think he’s just getting it now,” Baffert said when asked about Justify’s Preakness chances. “He knows he’s a stud. He’s so beautiful. He’s got the body. It looks like it was nothing for him.”
Jockey Mike Smith said Justify had plenty left in his tank over the last eighth of a mile of the Derby. The battle was actually to keep him from overexerting himself when the effort was not required.
It’s unclear how strong a field Justify will face when he comes to Pimlico Race Course.
Derby runner-up Good Magic, who made a strong move on the lead late in the race, is a maybe for the Preakness. Trainer Chad Brown said he’ll first take his horse back to New York to recuperate.
“I don’t know,” Brown said. “The horse is sound. He looks good, but I just have to observe him. … I want to get the horse back home and evaluate his energy level. We’ve just got to go from there.”
Brown won the Preakness last year with Cloud Computing, and Good Magic’s father, Curlin, won the race in 2007.
But Justify presents a daunting obstacle, even for a horse as tested as Good Magic.
“Yesterday, I think the horse that was supposed to win, won,” Brown said. “I’m very impressed. This was his first try at a mile and a quarter, too, with not a ton of experience. When you watched the race unfold, it was just tough to envision a scenario in which that horse could’ve gotten beat yesterday, really from any post.
“When we come off the turn, I thought we could reel him in, maybe, because those were strong fractions for a horse on his first try going that long. But he just found more. So hats off to him and Bob.”
Trainer Todd Pletcher has never liked the twoweek turnaround between the first two legs of the Triple Crown, so none of his four Derby entrants, including third-place finisher Audible, seem likely for the Preakness.
Others once thought to have a shot at Justify, including California star Bolt d’Oro and Irish-trained Mendelssohn, are headed home with no plans to run in Baltimore.
Fifth-place Derby finisher My Boy Jack is headed back to California and more likely to return east for the Belmont Stakes than the Preakness. Fourthplace finisher Instilled Regard will take 30 days to refresh himself at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky.
Seventh-place finisher Hofburg is also likely to wait for the Belmont after he closed with a fury in the Derby.
Venerable trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who’s won the Preakness six times, is likely to show up with sixth-place Derby finisher Bravazo and another horse, Sporting Chance.
Quip, runner-up in the Arkansas Derby, skipped the Derby and is a candidate to run fresh in the Preakness. But like Justify, he’s owned by WinStar Farm, so that challenge is no sure thing.
Diamond King, winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, is likely to be in the field.
But if Justify shows up in close to top form, none of those horses are going to scare Baffert the way the Derby field did Saturday.