He did it!!!
Don’t you just love mike smith stroking that Horse and sponging water on him? Gee what a great day
9 Likes
Led from wire to wire, with no serious challenge. What a race. I hope the fact that he did NOT race as a two-year old will make some trainers reconsider racing young horses.
24 Likes
Wire to wire. I knew he could. He has the attitude and when I saw him dig it out at the start I knew he wanted it. DH was rooting for Bravazo and even I was surprised no one was able to come up and look him in the eye. Such a big masculine horse. AWESOME!
5 Likes
Great job, Justify!
But how about Gronkowsky? Left behind at the gate, looked like he forgot there was a race, and ended up second!
15 Likes
AWESOME! Now…retire that horse and let him eat grass and make babies.
7 Likes
I will admit I wasn’t sure he could do it. But it was great to watch! You could tell early that this was his race. He was galloping along at an easy pace on a loose rein. Just wow!
And did y’all see Gronkowski?!?! He was my other pick (Patriots fan), the overhead view of the race showed how perfectly his trip lined up, but impressive nonetheless!!
4 Likes
such natural balance, so beautifully over the back.
I predict 20 - 30 years from now you will see his name in 3Day horse pedigrees
7 Likes
I really admire Mike, and Kenny Troutt, for thanking the Lord for this “earthly” victory on worldwide TV.
I would love to see Justify go on and see what he can do over England’s longer classic race distances. Anybody who can win wire-to-wire in a mile-and-a-half race deserves to face off challengers at two miles, IMO.
He is another big chestnut that deserves the third Big Red nickname.
14 Likes
He had it all his own way, the only horse to even attempt to pressure him was the other Baffert horse and the jockey stood up in the first turn and started swinging on him when he realized he might upset the Apple cart. But in fairness, you can only beat what’s put in front of you, and he did find extra under a hand ride in the stretch. Will be interesting to see how he develops over the rest of the year.
2 Likes
The Europeans don’t even race their top horses over two miles, why should an American horse have to do that?
the horse will never step foot outside of the US, nor should he have to, the rest of the world knows where he lives f they want to take him on, and they have till the end of Oct to do it, because he won’t be racing after that.
3 Likes
This is my favorite Justify moment (photo by Stever Heuertz) His exuberant lead change passing the wire the first time in the Preakness
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“DdnEYYvVwAEDrrh.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10142762}[/ATTACH]
14 Likes
Yay as well. I didnt start this - just adding to.
2 Likes
I always thought that maybe, since he’s such a big guy, that maybe his knees wern’t closed when he was two. (Again) our one filly had to have x-rays to determine if hers were closed before they started her in training.
Also, as an aside, in the post parade, there was a pony who had long braids in his mane, with green beads at the end of each braid, a la Bo Derek in 10. Pony had a blaze and a white shadow roll. Haven’t seen that before. Kinda neat looking. And I see that Pom Poms are back.
I expected Justify to do the job. Gronkowsky was the real surprise.
Kudos to Bob.
He is doing something right.
Has there been a trainer to get two triple crown winners?
Let alone two in three years.
3 Likes
Yes, but it’s been a long time! Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons in the 30s had 2 - I think Gallant Fox and Omaha?
4 Likes
I never thought I’d live to actually see a Triple Crown. Now I’ve seen two! Taking nothing away from Justify I think Pharoah will always be my favorite but man…can’t believe it!! So happy!
2 Likes
This is the story of why Justify didn’t race as a two year old according to his owner (the one who represented himself as his owner at the races.) They were able to buy Justify as a yearling at a bargain price (half a million) and eventually sent him to Baffert. Baffert sent him to his second string barn. Finally J’s trainer made Baffert watch him run. It was too late to race him as a two year old. The tv coverage today reported that last February Baffert went to the track office the day of J’s maiden race to make sure the race wasn’t cancelled for lack of interest. The folks there asked him why he cared and Baffert replied, “Because I have a colt entered that I believe could win the Kentucky Derby!” And the rest is history!
I’ve never seen such wonderful rides as those that Mike Smith gave J. The first part of the Belmont he was standing up letting the colt basically lope along. All the commentators warned about starting the horse’s move too soon because of that extra quarter of a mile. Mike crouched down at exactly the right time and showed the horse the whip in rhythm but he didn’t even establish contact with Justify’s mouth. From start to finish he allowed Justify to run his own race and what an amazing race it was! I feel honored to have witnessed it. May God bless Justify and everyone who worked so hard to bring us this thrilling, historic day thanks to this amazing horse. Hooray!
14 Likes
He was so cool. One of the commentators said afterwards “he rode it like it was the fourth race on a Wednesday”. :lol:
9 Likes
CG18 - Me too.
I wish thatAP was avaiable for non racing breeding.
If he passes on his sweet temper that would open up all sorts of sport horse possibilities.
