Baffert on Justify: “He was like a comet, streaking along the sky.”
A few days before Triple Crown winner Justify is formally inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame on Friday, trainer Bob Baffert chuckled when he recalled his first impression of the massive chestnut colt.
“It was right after the [2017] Breeders’ Cup, and he’d been at Los Alamitos with [assistant] Mike Marlow,” said Baffert, whose top Derby prospect at the time was McKinzie, who took the Los Alamitos Derby (G1) in his second start. “He had been saying, ‘Bob, you’re gonna love this horse. You’re really gonna love him.’
“I looked at him, and he looked just like a giant quarter-horse. I thought, ‘Is he going to be a sprinter?’”
Fortunately, the son of Scat Daddy didn’t know he was not supposed to get a second chance to make a good impression.
“The first time I worked him at Santa Anita, I was on the walkie-talkie with the exercise rider, watching him work,” said Baffert of Justify, who was born scarcely a month after the Baffert-trained American Pharoah swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 2015. “The good ones, they don’t have a bottom to them. I said, ‘keep going,’ and he just kept going and going. I thought then, ‘man, he is really something special.’”
Hall of Fame ceremony at Spa; Gun Runner, Joel Rosario among class
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, New York. Also being inducted are horses Gun Runner, Aristedes, and Lecomte, and jockey Joel Rosario.
It’s hard to keep a horse as special as Justify under wraps, and he was duly sent off as the 1-2 favorite in his first start on Feb. 18, a 7-furlong maiden race which he won by 9 ½ lengths. He scored a 6 1/2-length victory under Mike Smith on March 11, and punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby with an equally facile win in the Santa Anita Derby (G1).
Derby win: … “wait a minute – that’s not Good Magic. That’s Justify!”
It’s raining in Kentucky and on the track I see this chestnut horse with a big white blaze. He looked so good. I’m thinking, ‘That Good Magic, he’s a really good-looking horse … wait a minute – that’s not Good Magic. That’s Justify!’
“He’s a specimen,” Baffert added. “Every time he was on the track, it was like he was a man among boys.”
In just his fourth career start, Justify did what no horse since Apollo in 1882 had done – win the 1 ¼-mile Derby without having made a single start as a 2-year-old. Two weeks later, he took on Good Magic – and the fog – in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness.
Preakness: Justify barely hangs on
“I had told Mike Smith, the more horse you save, the more is left for me to work with,” said the trainer. “This time, Good Magic takes him on early. I’m watching on the monitor, and all I can see is they’re going together down the backside. He’s still in front at the half-mile and they disappear into the fog again. I see a big white face on the turn, and they’re back in the fog again. It looked like he barely hung on.
“I told Mike he didn’t look like Triple Crown material. Mike looks at me, and said, ‘No, no, it was fine. I just did what you told me to: I shut him down.”
Belmont: Justify becomes 13th Triple Crown champion
Baffert headed to New York on the verge of a Triple Crown sweep for the fifth time in his career. In 1997, Silver Charm was passed in deep stretch and lost by three-quarters of a length to Touch
Justify
Gold. The following year, Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet had the crown snatched away when caught at the wire by Victory Gallop. And in 2002, War Emblem lost all chance when he fell to his knees at the start.
It would be another 13 years before Baffert had that rare chance of a lifetime, and this time, American Pharoah delivered.
“In the Belmont, we knew what we had to do. I went there five times, so many disappointments,” said Baffert. “In the Triple Crown, everything has to go perfect. The only thing I said to Mike was, ‘Don’t make an early move.’ Mike told me later he kept hearing my voice in his head.”
Galloping along – and alone – on the lead, Justify became racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner in the 1 ½-mile Belmont, digging in through the stretch to quell Gronkowski’s late threat and win by 1 ¾ lengths. Six weeks later, he was retired due to an inflamed ankle, leaving behind a perfect 6-for-6 record and earnings of $3,798,000, accomplished in the span of less than four months
“He was like a comet, streaking along the sky,” said Baffert. “Winning the Triple Crown, it’s all about the horse. You’re just in awe of the horse. It’s just so hard to accomplish. Thinking of all the Triple Crown winners – those horses must have been ridiculous.
“It’s just so much fun having this good horses,” he added. “There’s always another horse out there. You don’t know where they’re going to come from. We’re all just living for the next one.”
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
