Justify shows no glaring weakness
BALTIMORE — Opposing trainers at the Preakness Stakes always want to see the Kentucky Derby winner up close before setting their sights on trying to beat that horse.
This year, they can see Justify. They just don’t know if they can beat him.
There’s such a sense of awe about Justify and an aura around the heavy favorite that it’s clear it will take something significant to beat him today. Watching Justify hold off Good Magic on May 5 at Churchill Downs was enough to calm expectations.
“I was very impressed with how well (Justify) ran from gate to finish,” said Brown, who trains Good Magic. “I’m confident my horse will run well, but I’m also very aware what a tall order this is to try and turn the tables on a horse like him.”
The consensus around Pimlico Race Course is if Justify simply runs his race this evening — post time is at 6:48 — he’ll win the Preakness and head to the Belmont Stakes on June 9 in Elmont, New York, with the chance to give trainer Bob Baffert his second Triple Crown victory in four years. American Pharoah captured it in 2015.
Justify will have to regress back to the pack for any of the other seven horses to finish first.
“If he runs his race, if he shows up — I think every trainer, that’s all we hope for,” Baffert said. “I feel good. Right now I feel confident that he’s going to show up.”
Only a handful of things could reasonably derail Justify, a 1-2 morning-line favorite who is 4-0 and has won his four starts by a combined 21 1/2 lengths. He showed something more by running such an impressive race in the mud at the Derby. It has rained all week in Baltimore, and more today should make for another sloppy track.
The other concerns are if Justify’s bruised heel gets irritated from a couple of days working out in mud and how the surface might complicate the start.
Baffert has been harping all week on the break being the most important part of the race. Even if he’s not as worried as he was when the field was 20 horses in the Derby, it’s the thing he’s most nervous about.
“I want him to leave the gate well, and after that, what happens, happens,” said Baffert, who’s 4-0 with Derby winners in the Preakness. “We have to worry about something. It’s not like I’m just sitting there like, ‘OK, we’ve just got to get around there.’ We still have to get around there.”
Drawing the same post No. 7 he won the Derby from puts Justify in an advantageous spot. He should be able to avoid getting caught up in traffic trouble out of the starting gate. He’s far from D. Wayne Lukas’ unpredictable Sporting Chance and won’t be trapped inside.
“He’s a big horse, and I think Bob would like to see him get in a rhythm,” said Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm, which co-owns Justify. “It’s a little easier to do from the outside. If he gets slammed leaving there as everybody tries to work down to the fence, sometimes you can get sucked back if you break a step slow. So I think he’s happy that he’s out there.”
Baffert is happy the bruise on Justify’s left hind foot hasn’t been a problem for more than a week now, with the colt unbothered during his morning workouts at Pimlico since arriving Wednesday. If Justify breaks clean and gets over the 1 3/16mile race with no discomfort in that heel, even the strongest competitors are likely running for second.