Justify (USA)
March 28, 2015 – Living
Scat Daddy (USA) x Stage Magic (USA), by Ghostzapper (USA)
Family 1-h
March 28, 2015 – Living
Scat Daddy (USA) x Stage Magic (USA), by Ghostzapper (USA)
Family 1-h
Justify made his racing debut on February 18, 2018—far too late to consider prepping for the Kentucky Derby, according to conventional wisdom. 111 days later, Justify became the 13th American Triple Crown winner, and only the second to sweep the series while unbeaten (the first was Seattle Slew). The strapping chestnut was intended to target the Breeders' Cup Classic (USA-G1) following his Belmont Stakes win but instead retired from racing on July 25, 2018, due to a persistent ankle injury. Nonetheless. he stood off a strong bid from 2018 champion older male Accelerate, who won five Grade 1 races during the season, to become the 2018 American Horse of the Year.
Race record
6 starts, 6 wins, 0 seconds, 0 thirds, US$3,798,000
2018:
Honors
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. 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.
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.
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
Fun facts
Photo credit
Photo taken by Tim Stephansen at Ashford Stud in 2019. Used by permission.
Last updated: February 21, 2022
Race record
6 starts, 6 wins, 0 seconds, 0 thirds, US$3,798,000
2018:
- 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)
- Won Santa Anita Derby (USA-G1, 9FD, Santa Anita)
Honors
- 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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
- 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). 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.
- 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: February 21, 2022