Justify takes run at Triple Crown
but I have a great support system.”
He also has plenty of competition. Justify will take on nine others. It would be the most beaten in the Belmont by a Triple Crown winner. Every horse will be saddled by a trainer who has won a Triple Crown race. All but one is more rested than Justify, who was made a 4-5 favorite in the morning line.
D. Wayne Lukas has won the race four times, and trains Bravazo, the cothird-choice at 9-2. Bravazo was fifth in the Kentucky Derby and a fast-closing second in the Preakness. Now he’s in New York, hoping he can finish the job.
“I think we probably missed our best chance at him in the Preakness,” Lukas said of Justify. “I think he’s going to be ready. We’re not going to get a base on balls.”
Bravazo is attempting to do it the hard way. Since 2008, only 13 horses who didn’t have a Triple Crown on the line ran all three legs. Five were trained by Lukas. One is Bravazo.
They’ve been asking Lukas all week what it would feel like to prevent history from happening by beating Justify.
But if Lukas wins, it is history. It would be his 15th win in a Triple Crown race, breaking a tie with Baffert, and it would be a return to racing glory for Calumet Farm, which produced eight Kentucky Derby winners and two Triple Crown winners — Whirlaway and Citation — before falling upon hard times.
The other third-choice in the morning line is Vino Rosso, one of two Derby returnees in the race trained by Todd Pletcher, a twotime Preakness winner.
Pletcher is one of several high-profile trainers who have kept a rather low profile this week. Friday, he sent his horses to the training track at Belmont, away from the cameras. His other Belmont entry is Noble Indy.
Doug O’Neill, whose I’ll Have Another didn’t make the Belmont after winning the Derby and Preakness in 2012, will try to capture a belated third leg with Blended Citizen, a splendid looking colt who missed out on the Kentucky Derby on points. He has plenty of seasoning. The Belmont will be his 11th race.
The only Grade I stakes win in the field besides those earned by Justify belongs to Dale Romans’ Free Drop Billy.
Steve Asmussen, who won the Belmont with Curlin, brings in Tenfold, who finished third in the Preakness and who has been training impressively at Churchill Downs.
And there’s Chad Brown, whose colt Gronkowski garners national attention because of his name, and because of his NFL namesake, New England tight end Rob Gronkowski, bought a share of the colt before the Kentucky Derby. Brown is just weeks removed from getting the colt, after he was trained by England-based Jeremy Noseda.
And then there’s Baffert, who in addition to Justify will send Restoring Hope to the starting gate.
Justify will have to break from the No. 1 spot. Getting to the lead will be a bit more challenging. But Baffert isn’t sweating it. Justify has followed American Pharoah’s path, runs for his trainer, even lives in the same stall in Baffert’s barn at Santa Anita. Still, he needs to win to share his legacy.
He should get to go for it on a dry track. Rain chances for Saturday have diminished in recent days for a colt who won the first two legs on wet tracks. The only other colt to do that was the great Triple Crown winner Citation. The previous time Justify ran on a dry track, he posted the biggest speed figure of his life in the Santa Anita Derby. But for Baffert, all of these things are incidental.
“If he’s meant to win, that won’t matter,” Baffert said. “If he can’t overcome things, he wasn’t meant to win. He’s really thriving right now. I see a big difference with him. He’s getting really fit. This three weeks [between races] has really made a big difference.”
Back at the barn, Barnes removed Justify’s ear plugs. He won’t wear them for the race. He’ll hear the horses coming at him. He’ll hear the hoofbeats. And if he approaches that finish line with the lead again, he’ll hear the roar.