Justify tops in Derby prep

Justify ($3.80) capped a day of 11⁄8-mile Kentucky Derby prep races with a front-running, 3-length victory over Bolt d’Oro in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1,000,345 Santa Anita Derby.

Now Justify will try to become the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby without racing as a 2-year-old since Apollo in 1882. Justify won his 7-furlong debut by 9½ lengths Feb. 18 and a 1-mile allowance by 6½ lengths March 11.

“He punched his ticket to the front row,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who won the Santa Anita Derby for the eighth time. “He’s just so naturally talented, and I think he showed that today because I have a lot of respect for Bolt d’Oro. This race will really move him forward, but there are a lot of nice horses out there.”

Justify finished 11⁄8 miles in 1:49.72, and all the 3-year-olds

will have to handle another eighth of a mile in the 1¼-mile Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

In the Grade 1, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, 2-year-old champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Good Magic ($5.20) overtook Flame away in the early stretch and beat him by 1½ lengths.

Bred and co-owned by the Kendall Jackson Family wine conglomerate’s Stonestreet Stables, Good Magic finished in 1:50.18 to restore his status as one of the favorites for the Run for the Roses. He had finished third as the odds-on choice in the Fountain of

Youth Stakes in his 3-year-old debut.

In the Grade 2, $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, Vino Rosso ($10.40) became trainer Todd Pletcher’s fourth qualifier for the Kentucky Derby with a 3-length victory over Gotham Stakes winner Enticed.

Vino Rosso, who survived a stewards’ inquiry for drifting in and bumping Enticed in early stretch, finished in 1:49.79 to join Audible, Noble Indy and Magnum Moon on Pletcher’s Kentucky Derby roster.

For trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, Instilled Regard finished fourth in the Santa Anita Derby and Kanthaka ran sixth in the Blue Grass Stakes for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Miss Sunset just misses: Miss Sunset finished second in the Grade 1, $300,000 Madison Stakes on the Blue Grass Stakes undercard, losing to Finley’s luckycharm ($13.80) by a nose in a four-horse blanket finish. Trained by Jeff Bonde, Miss Sunset finished a nose ahead of Lewis Bay, who was a head in front of pacesetter American Girl.