The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Owners: Justify will race again
NEW YORK — Triple Crown winner Justify will get a well-deserved break and then race again this year, although no date or location has been targeted yet after the colt came out of his Belmont Stakes victory in good condition.
Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm said Sunday the multi-owner group that controls Justify wants to share the horse with the public by racing him. A plan will be formulated once the chestnut colt recovers from a compressed schedule that saw him win six races over 111 days since his debut on Feb. 18.
“Our focus was on each race as they came up,” Walden said after unveiling Justify’s Triple Crown banner inside Belmont Park. “Now we can take a deep breath and just see how the horse is.”
Justify is set to return to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday.
Next Saturday, Justify’s owners along with trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Mike Smith will receive their engraved Kentucky Derby trophies at Churchill. It’s possible Justify could be paraded at the track like American Pharoah after he won the Triple Crown for Baffert in 2015.
“Today he looked fantas-
tic,” Baffert said. “After a week, it starts catching up with them.”
On June 17, Justify will travel to Baffert’s base in Southern California to await his next move.
Among the possibilities: the $1 million Haskell Invitational on July 29 at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park, the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 18 and the $1.25 million Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
Baffert can expect to hear from officials at several tracks eager to lure racing’s newest superstar, much like he did with American Pharaoh.
Baffert took American Pharoah to Saratoga in August 2015 and the Triple Crown winner was upset by Keen Ice in the Travers.
“Everybody thinks I’m so opposed to Saratoga,” he said. “I’m not. I’ve had really good luck there.”
The season-ending Breeders’ Cup world championships are in Louisville on Nov. 2-3.