Pretty good for a beginner: Justify is a racing prodigy
Justify is the 1- 2 morningline favorite to add Saturday’s Preakness Stakes to his unblemished record and move on to the June 9 Belmont Stakes seeking the Triple Crown.
Thirteen weeks ago, Justify hadn’t even competed in a race.
Justify won his debut by 9 ½ lengths Feb. 18, dominated an allowance event by 6 ½ lengths March 11, took the Santa Anita Derby by 3 lengths April 7 and captured the Kentucky Derby by 2 ½ lengths on May 5.
“It is amazing,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “Seventy- five days from his first start and you win the Kentucky Derby against one of the strongest fields you’ve ever seen.”
Justify didn’t come to Baffert’s barn until November, but made an immediate impression.
“I worked him five- eighths ( of a mile) and he went around there and did it effortlessly,” Baffert said. “That’s when I knew he was a cut above the rest. I can’t believe how fortunate I’ve been to come across
horses like ( American) Pharoah, Arrogate and this horse. I’m doing something right.”
American Pharoah won the Triple Crown in 2015 — becoming the first horse to do so since Affirmed in 1978. Arrogate won the Travers Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic, Pegasus World Cup and Dubai World Cup in a seven- month span in 2016- 17.
Baffert has won the Preakness six times — one short of R. W. Walden’s record set in the late 1800s — and all were with horses that ran in the Kentucky Derby. Silver Charm,
Real Quiet, War Emblem and American Pharoah won both races, and Point Given and Lookin at Lucky were favored in the Derby.
So Baffert is used to overcoming the two- week turnaround between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
“Every horse I’ve taken to Baltimore that won the Derby, they’ve run well because they’re in the zone, they’re peaking out,” Baffert said.
Justify won the Derby despite racing within a halflength of the lead on a very fast pace. Good Magic was only 2 lengths from the lead in fifth place and also ran a strong race to finish second. Good Magic is the 3- 1 second choice in the Preakness.
The next eight finishers in the Derby came from 11th place or farther back, and the other horses that were within 5 lengths of the lead after a halfmile finished 11- 12- 13- 15- 17.
So not only is Justify fast, he can finish, too, and the wet track he’ll encounter Saturday will resemble the one at Churchill Downs on Derby Day.
“There’s no crack in the armor,” rival trainer D. Wayne Lukas said of Justify. “Any horse heavily favored coming out of the Derby, give him a clear run and he’s going to be tough to beat. But you can’t mail it in.”
Lukas, who also has won the Preakness six times, runs two horses in Saturday’s race: Bravazo, who finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby, and Sporting Chance, fourth in the Pat Day Mile.
Also running are Quip and Tenfold, second and fifth, respectively, in the Arkansas Derby; Lone Sailor, eighth in the Kentucky Derby, and Diamond King, who has won four of six against much lesser competition.