Justify (horse)

Won Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (USA-G1, 12FD, Belmont)
Won Preakness Stakes (USA-G1, 9.5FD, Pimlico)
Won Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (USA-G1, 10FD, Churchill Downs)

Honors

National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 2024)
Eclipse Award, American Horse of the Year (2018)
Eclipse Award, American champion 3-year-old male (2018)

Assessments

Justify was rated at 125 pounds on the 2018 Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, tops among 3-year-olds and tied for eighth overall.

As an individual

A chestnut, Justify stands a reported 16.3 hands. He combines a large, powerful body with great athleticism and is an excellent mover, though with rather weak feet. His chief weapon on the track was his high cruising speed, which generally led to his being placed on or near the lead. He could be placed as his jockey desired and was indifferent as to track conditions. According to his connections, he is highly intelligent and eager to learn but is also dominant and inclined to bite.

As a stallion

Justify entered stud in Kentucky at Ashland Stud in 2019. According to top Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien, his progeny are typically good-winded and good-sized, with rangy builds, long strides, and an eagerness to train and race.

Sire rankings

Per Arion Pedigrees (www.arion.co.nz):

Led the North American juvenile sire list in 2023.

Per The Blood-Horse:

Led the American juvenile sire list in 2023.

Notable progeny

Arabian Lion (USA), Aspen Grove (IRE), City of Troy (USA), Hard to Justify (USA), Just F Y I (USA), Opera Singer (USA), Ramatuelle (USA)

Connections

Foaled in Kentucky, Justify was bred by John Gunther, who sold him to the China Horse Club and Maverick Racing for US$500,000 through the Glennwood Farm consignment at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale. The colt raced for WinStar Farm, the China Horse Club, Starlight Racing and Head of Plains Partners. He was trained by Bob Baffert. He entered stud at Ashford Stud in Kentucky in 2019 after his breeding rights were acquired by the Coolmore conglomerate (to which Ashford belongs) for an undisclosed sum. An unconfirmed report released by ESPN and other media outlets estimated the value of the deal as high as US$75 million. He has also shuttled to Australia.

Pedigree notes

Justify is inbred 5x3x5 to two-time American champion sire and nine-time American champion broodmare sire Mr. Prospector. He is also inbred 4x5 to 1970 English Triple Crown winner, 1986 English champion sire and two-time American champion broodmare sire Nijinsky II, and 5x5 to the mare Narrate. He is a half brother to 2018 All American Stakes (USA-G3) winner The Lieutenant (by Street Sense).

Justify's dam Stage Magic was Grade 3-placed on the track. She is out of Grade 1-placed mare Magical Illusion (by Pulpit), whose half sister Layreebelle (by Tale of the Cat) is the dam of Grade 2 winner Spellbound (by Bernardini) and multiple Grade 3 winner Kid Cruz (by Lemon Drop Kid). The sisters are out of Grade 3 winner Voodoo Lily (by Baldski), one of three stakes winners produced from the unraced For the Moment mare Cap the Moment.

Books and media

Justify's story is told in Justify: 111 Days to Triple Crown Glory. Written by Lenny Shulman and with a forward by Steve Haskin, the book was released in 2019 by Triumph Books.
Justify is the 13th of the American Triple Crown winners featured in Ed Bowen's The Lucky 13: The Winners of America's Triple Crown of Horse Racing (2019, Lyon Press).

Fun facts

Justify is the most lightly raced American Triple Crown winner in history, as the Belmont was only his sixth start and turned out to be his last. Previously, American Pharoah had been the most lightly raced horse to win the Triple Crown as the Belmont was his eighth start; he had also been the Triple Crown winners with the fewest lifetime starts (11).
Justify was the first horse to have won the Kentucky Derby without having raced at 2 since Apollo, the 1882 winner. He was the first horse to win with only three previous starts since Big Brown in 2008.
Justify is the fifth of a record-tying six Kentucky Derby winners for trainer Bob Baffert, who shares the record for most Derby wins by a trainer with Calumet Farm's legendary Ben Jones. The others were Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1997), War Emblem (2002), American Pharoah (2015), and Authentic (2020). Baffert appeared to have a record-breaking seventh Derby winner when Medina Spirit finished first in 2021, but the victory was taken away via disqualification after the colt tested positive for the corticosteroid bethmethasone.
Justify's Belmont victory made trainer Bob Baffert one of only two men to train two American Triple Crown winners throughout their Triple Crown sweeps. The other was “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, who trained Gallant Fox (1930) and Omaha (1935).
Justify's Triple Crown sweep also made 52-year-old Mike Smith the oldest jockey to win the American Triple Crown.
According to The Blood-Horse ("Just Spectacular," Lenny Shulman, June 16, 2018), Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm gave credit for Justify's name to farm manager Amy Nave, who was in part alluding to the Christian doctrine of justification by faith.
As a youngster at John Gunther's Glennwood Farm, Justify shared a paddock with 2019 American champion older dirt male Vino Rosso and 2018 St. James's Palace Stakes (ENG-G1) winner Without Parole, both of whom were also bred by Gunther.
Justify was the only Eclipse Award winner of 2018 to earn a unanimous vote within his division.
Justify's win in the Belmont Stakes was voted the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's 2018 "Moment of the Year."
On September 11, 2019, New York Times writer Joe Drape broke a story reporting that Justify had tested positive for the banned substance scopolamine following the Santa Anita Derby. (Scopolamine is a 4C substance as classified by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, the least serious classification among banned substances, and veterinarians have given conflicting reports regarding its potential effect on equine performance.) According to the article, the drug positive was reported to the California Horse Racing Board on April 18, but the CHRB did not notify trainer Bob Baffert until April 26. Baffert then exercised his right to request that a portion of the sample be submitted for testing to an accredited independent laboratory, which was done on May 1. The independent lab confirmed the positive, but the results were not returned by May 8, by which time Justify had won the Kentucky Derby (for which he would not have been eligible had he been disqualified from his Santa Anita Derby win prior to the Kentucky Derby). Responding to the story, the CHRB stated that there had not been time to do a complete investigation prior to the Kentucky Derby and further stated that the positive was most likely due to environmental contamination by jimsonweed, a plant that naturally contains scopolamine and has been found inadvertently mixed in feed and in straw intended for horse bedding. Justify's drug tests following all three Triple Crown races were negative. A review of the CHRB's decision by the Santa Anita stewards ended on December 9, 2020, with the results of the Santa Anita Derby unchanged. However, on December 1, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff ruled that the CHRB was to set aside this decision and issue a new ruling stating that Justify was disqualified from his Santa Anita Derby. The reported reason behind his decision was that while the CHRB had stated that Justify had tested positive and under California racing rules should have been disqualified, the CHRB had claimed that it lacked the jurisdiction to order the disqualification. Beckloff determined that the CHRB indeed had the needed authority and ordered that the board issue a revised ruling based on what by its own declaration it "would have" done had it understood itself to have jurisdiction. On March 7, 2024, the CHRB issued an order to the Santa Anita stewards to declare second-place Bolt d'Oro the official winner of the Santa Anita Derby and to redistribute the purse accordingly. In addition, the CHRB agreed to a settlement of US$300,000 with the owner of Bolt d'Oro, Mick Ruis. It remains to be seen whether the case will be further appealed.
Justify's first foal was a filly out of the Exchange Rate mare Foreign Affair, foaled on January 3, 2020. The filly was bred by Audley Farm, which had the distinction of standing the first American Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton.

Photo credit

Photo taken by Tim Stephansen at Ashford Stud in 2019. Used by permission.

Last updated: May 4, 2024