Sports News

Preakness winner Justify’s toughest test still in front of him

By Tom Pedulla 

Justify, with jockey Mike Smith aboard, wins the Preakness on Saturday. AP

BALTIMORE — Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert exuded confidence Sunday as he anticipated Justify’s bid to join Seattle Slew as the only undefeated Triple Crown champions by winning the Belmont Stakes on June 9.


“I think the Belmont will be easier on him, the way it’s set up,” said Baffert of the mile-and-a-half contest, known as the “Test of the Champion.”

Baffert has often compared Justify to American Pharoah, who ended a record 37-year drought between Triple Crown winners in 2015 by becoming the 12th horse to complete the sweep. He developed American Pharoah and continued to heap praise on his latest star.

“I just feel with this horse, he’s so talented, something can go wrong and he’d still win,” Baffert said. “He’s a superior horse. [Saturday] they tried something different, and he still handled it. He’s not one-dimensional.”

Justify had swept his first four career starts by a combined 21 ½ lengths, including a comfortable 2 ½-length decision against Good Magic in the 1 ¼-mile Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old’s mettle was tested as never before in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness as 134,487 fans peered into a dense fog at rain-soaked Pimlico Race Course on Saturday.

Justify, under fierce pressure from Good Magic, led by a head after the opening quarter of a mile and still held that slim margin through three-quarters of a mile. When he finally shed the 2-year-old champion, he needed to withstand a furious late charge from Bravazo, who missed nailing him by half a length. Surging Tenfold was a neck behind Bravazo in third.

The close call suggested Justify might be vulnerable after a rousing Derby in which he defied what had been known as the Curse of Apollo by adding his name to that of Apollo (1882) as the only Derby winners that were unraced as 2-year-olds.

Retired Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, an NBC analyst, said of Justify’s showing in the Preakness, “I thought it was courageous, although not brilliant.”

The Preakness marked the fifth race in 91 days for the Kentucky-bred colt. He was forced to make a quick two-week turnaround to the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

“I believe the number of races he’s had in a short amount of time and the brilliant performance he had in Kentucky all caught up with him,” Bailey said.

In addition, Justify showed that he remains a raw talent when he jumped tracks while going under the wire the first time. Jockey Mike Smith also said the horse lost focus in the stretch and began waiting for other horses instead of putting them away.

“A bit of the greenness came out,” Smith said.

Justify bruised his left heel while running on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs. Although he also was forced to handle a sloppy surface at Pimlico, Baffert said there is no sign the injury recurred.

Following Justify’s less-than-overwhelming Preakness, the overriding question leading to the 150th Belmont will be how much the potential 13th Triple Crown winner has left at a marathon distance in what will be his third race in five weeks.

“They’ll be firing bullets at him at Belmont,” said trainer John Servis, whose Smarty Jones succumbed to heavy early pressure and missed the Triple Crown when Birdstone upset him in the final leg in 2004.