By Steve Sherack
BALTIMORE, Md – And you thought all those marquees in the Pimlico infield made it difficult to see on GI Preakness S. day.
With Old Hilltop completely enveloped in a dense fog cover, the announced crowd of 134,487 let out a huge roar as the white blaze of the unbeaten GI Kentucky Derby winner Justify (Scat Daddy) emerged through the haze with a narrow advantage in mid-stretch after slugging it out with his familiar foe Good Magic (Curlin) for most of the way.
The 'TDN Rising Star,' off as the 2-5 favorite after running his record to a perfect four-for-four in style on the 'First Saturday in May,' kept on finding in the slop beneath Hall of Famer Mike Smith and stayed on to gamely to secure the second jewel of the Triple Crown by a half-length. Only a neck separated the rallying duo of Bravazo (Awesome Again) and Tenfold (Curlin) for second and third, respectively.
Kentucky Derby runner-up and champion 2-year-old Good Magic tired late to finish a close fourth.
“It was a nail-biter,” Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said after securing his record-tying seventh Preakness victory. “They put it to us. That was a good horse [Good Magic] and it was like they had their own private match race. Somebody had to give, and I'm glad it wasn't us. I'm so happy that we got it done.”
Baffert continued, “He's just a great horse, to handle all that pressure and keep on running. He had to really work for it and I'm happy for the horse and Mike [Smith] and all the connections [owners WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners and Starlight Racing] that we pulled it out. It took a lot out of me, but I'm just glad. It was a great horse race.”
With a packed house awaiting Justify's late afternoon arrival to the Stakes Barn on the Pimlico backstretch Wednesday, the mood and vibe all week felt awfully similar to American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile)'s historic run just three years earlier. Justify, a $500,000 KEESEP yearling purchase, heads to the Big Apple seeking to become racing's 13th Triple Crown winner.
“He has to show us, he has to come out of the race well and he's got to be training really well,” Baffert said. “I did the same thing with American Pharoah–all my horses that ran in the Triple Crown, they have to be 100%. He was blowing today. You could tell he was in a fight the whole way, but we'll just get him back to Kentucky and we'll see how he trains.”
All five of Baffert's Kentucky Derby winners–Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), War Emblem (2002), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify-have doubled up in Baltimore.
How the Race Was Won…
Justify jumped well from post seven and was immediately shadowed to his inside by Good Magic. The pair mixed it up through sensible fractions of :23.11 and :47.19 and the stage was set (or at least it appeared to be thanks to some great camera work by the Pimlico team in some very trying conditions) as they hit the far turn. Justify looked to be going the better of the two and emerged with the lead from “the showdown in the fog” as track announcer Dave Rodman put it in midstretch. The GI Santa Anita Derby hero continued to respond to those trademark left-handers by Mike Smith from there and held the aforementioned rallying duo safe.
Justify is the second Preakness winner for the Hall of Fame rider and his first since Prairie Bayou in 1993. “It's unbelievable,” Smith said. “It's a dream come true, to be honest with you. He got a little tired. This is the hardest race that he's had, but he was also waiting on competition. It was awful loud out there and the track's pretty narrow and he was kind of looking and jumping tracks and doing a few things, but it was a good kind of tired. It was that kind of tired I'm hoping, anyway, and I feel like he'll move forward.”
Trainer Chad Brown, represented by his first Classic victory with Cloud Computing (Maclean's Music) in last year's Preakness, wasn't happy with how the race shaped up. “No, I didn't want the horse on the lead,” Brown said of Good Magic's trip. “We were inside [Justify] the whole way. Unfortunately, our horse took the worst of it being on the fence and getting pressed the whole way. He's just not a horse that runs on the lead, so I'm pretty disappointed. I would have liked to see a different scenario where maybe we were just off the pace a little bit and not being pressed on the fence the whole way. I'm disappointed.”
Never Count D. Wayne Out…
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, already represented by six Preakness victories, including Oxbow (Awesome Again) in 2013, said earlier in the week that Justify had a great chance at Triple Crown glory, but that his job was “to spoil the dream.” Coach came within a half-length of pulling it off with 15-1 shot Bravazo (Awesome Again), who was sixth at 66-1 in the Derby. “What I saw of it, I liked a lot,” Lukas said. “I want them to extend it another 50 yards. He was running on in the end. A very good horse won the race, a very good horse. We ran at him. We kept him honest just like we said we would. Bob [Baffert]'s tough in these and if he gets the right horse, he's really tough. But, kudos to him, and we'll see what happens in the next one.”
Saturday, Pimlico
PREAKNESS S.-GI, $1,500,000, Pimlico, 5-19, 3yo, 1 3/16m, 1:55.93, sy.
1–JUSTIFY, 126, c, 3, by Scat Daddy
1st Dam: Stage Magic (GSP, $133,981), by Ghostzapper
2nd Dam: Magical Illusion, by Pulpit
3rd Dam: Voodoo Lily, by Baldski
'TDN Rising Star' ($500,000 Ylg '16 KEESEP). O-China Horse
Club, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Starlight Racing, WinStar
Farm; B-John D. Gunther (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Mike E. Smith.
$900,000. Lifetime Record: 5-5-0-0, $2,998,000. Werk Nick
Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”glennwood-justify-double”][bullet ad=”bsw-bloodstock-private-purchase-for-head-of-plains”][bullet ad=”kbif-g1″]2–Bravazo, 126, c, 3, Awesome Again–Tiz o' Gold, by Cee's
Tizzy. O/B-Calumet Farm (KY); T-D. Wayne Lukas. $300,000.
3–Tenfold, 126, c, 3, Curlin–Temptress, by Tapit. O/B-Winchell
Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $165,000.
Margins: HF, NK, NK. Odds: 0.40, 15.30, 26.10.
Also Ran: Good Magic, Lone Sailor, Sporting Chance, Diamond King, Quip. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
On to Belmont with Tenfold…
“Honestly, you saw them go by the first time, and I was concerned with where he was. He was a little farther back than I thought he would be. He was pretty wide around the first turn. You see them down the backside, and you know he got in a great position into the second. When they came out of the fog, he was in the game. I'd say he got beat three-quarters of a length for all of it. He's a top-class horse who is getting better. We were three-quarters of a length away from where we want to be, let's figure out how to get it.”
As for the Belmont, “Absolutely. Heck yes.” – Steve Asmussen, trainer of third-place Tenfold
Pedigree Notes…
Justify is out of Stage Magic, a Grade III-placed daughter of Magical Illusion (Pulpit), third to Ashado (Saint Ballado) in the 2004 GI Coaching Club American Oaks when it was contested over 10 furlongs. Justify's third dam was Grade III winner Voodoo Lily, dam of MGSP Lily O'Gold (Slew o'Gold) as well as Shah Jehan (Mr. Prospector), a $4.4-million KEESEP yearling who was stakes-placed at two in Ireland before adding a pair of graded placings in this country in 2002. The further female family includes MGSW Kid Cruz (Lemon Drop Kid) and GSW Spellbound (Bernardini).
Stage Magic's 4-year-old daughter Holiday Music (Harlan's Holiday) was claimed by trainer Neil Pessin for $30,000 out of a winning effort at the Fair Grounds Jan. 1 and was then privately purchased by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Farm, which is also the home of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile)'s dam Littleprincessemma (Yankee Gentleman). Holiday Music is now in foal to Pioneerof the Nile. R.S. Evans and West Point Thoroughbreds teamed to purchase Justify's now 2-year-old half-sister by Pioneerof the Nile for $230,000 from the Glennwood consignment at last year's Keeneland September sale. Now named Egyptian Storm, she recently worked a bullet three furlongs in :37.40 at Payson Park. Stage Magic's 2017 foal is a colt by Will Take Charge and she produced a Pioneerof the Nile colt Apr. 19. She was to be bred back to Quality Road.
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