Triple Crown Winner.......

[a kennedy]

JUSTIFY.......

[malaise]

1. Speechless

[MissB]

2. Wow!

Rare horse indeed!

[trof]

3. Helluva race. Wire to wire.

[Heartstrings]

4. Great race, great horse!

Last edited Sat Jun 9, 2018, 09:57 PM - Edit history (1)

He is such a talented beauty!

[democratisphere]

5. Beautiful horse, total winner!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. It's been a very very long time since there was a Triple Crown Winner!

Congrats to JUSTIFY!

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

7. I know . . .

. . . you've got to go all the way back, to what?, 2015!

Justify made that look easy. And as an old guy myself, I was pleased to see Mike Smith, at 52, put a punctuation mark on his career like that.

[Tess49]

10. American Pharoah, 2015 n/t

[a kennedy]

14. That really does make it so special......the 52 year old jockey.

quit high school to ride, and the principal say well, you’re not going to amount to anything if you don’t graduate from high school......ha ha, he’s a damn millionaire, but not that means anything......

[LuvLoogie]

25. No need to answer

because I don't want to take this thread into the dumps, but...

I wonder, of those that quit high school, how many became millionaires, and how many died in prison?


And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Yay! Justify!

[muntrv]

8. 3 long years since American Pharaoh.

[Corgigal]

9. Jumped out of that gate.

Post position didn't stop him, nope.

[yardwork]

11. He loves to run.

[mobeau69]

12. Big Red is still my favorite. nt

[CountAllVotes]

17. Secretariat's 4X great grandson Justify !!!

45 years after Secretariat’s record breaking run Justify, Secretariat’s 4x great grandson, joins the elite club of Triple Crown Champions.

Amazing! Simply amazing!!!

[FarPoint]

52. Justify was 4 seconds slower...

than Secretariat's time....both races looked similar...1972 vs 2018.

[DonaldsRump]

55. Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973 n/t

[FarPoint]

57. I don't really care...

He won.

[tarheelsunc]

13. Happy for the horse, and the jockey seems decent...

I just continue to be amazed at the people involved in sports who believe God is taking time out of his busy schedule specifically to help them defeat others in competition. I want to ask these people why they are worthy of God's helping hand but not their competitors.

[mercuryblues]

59. I always

wonder who's child with cancer that God could have provided a miracle for if he wasn't so busy granting, touchdowns, homeruns, horse races, goals etc...

[CountAllVotes]

15. Big Red #2!!

45 years after Secretariat’s record breaking run Justify, Secretariat’s 4x great grandson, joins the elite club of Triple Crown Champions.

I said that after the race, "Wow! Another Big Red!".

Seems I was right!!!

Congratulations Justify!!

[a kennedy]

16. Really?? Secretariat's off spring??? NO WAY!!!!!!

[CountAllVotes]

19. Yes!

This is the 2nd winning horse out of Secretariat. There was one other, a mare, but other wise nothing until now!

Amazing ... looks like Secretariat -- I said that before the race and I knew it was the truth!

I love good news!!

[u4ic]

34. Technical term here

"out of" is reserved for a dam (mare). By xx (sire) out of xx (dam) is the way it is phrased.

Secretariat appears twice in his 6th generation - far far out. It's not even considered inbreeding at that point - the farther out one gets, the less the influence. A typical pedigree chart will go 5 generations back.

Justify is inbred 4x5 (meaning generations) to another amazing Triple Crown winner, Nijinsky, winner of the 1970 English Triple Crown. US Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew also appears once in his 5th generation.

His damsire, Ghostzapper, was an amazing racehorse.

[mobeau69]

20. Yes, you were!

[CountAllVotes]

21. I love watching this race

and the announcer ... really gets excited. Screaming!!

And yes, he broke the track record and went wire to wire never to be beaten again!


Thanks for posting this!!

[mvd]

18. What a horse!

Amazing to get 2 Triple Crown winners so close apart.

[CountAllVotes]

22. Yes a long dry spell

We had American Pharoah a in 2013. Before that it was Affirmed in 1978. Two winners in a short period of time!!

Year Horse
1919 Sir Barton
1930 Gallant Fox
1935 Omaha
1937 War Admiral
1941 Whirlaway
1943 Count Fleet
1946 Assault
1948 Citation
1973 Secretariat
1977 Seattle Slew
1978 Affirmed
2015 American Pharoah

[mvd]

38. Yeah TC winners were more common in the earlier years

Thanks for the info. Let's hope we don't have to wait a long time again after getting close together ones.

[ProfessorGAC]

60. Kind of Weird

Three in the 70's (and Riva Ridge was an "almost" in 1972) after a 25 year gap.

Then a 37 year gap and 2 in 3 years.

In the 30's and 40's it was almost commonplace. Then 3 in the 70's

Odd that so many pile up in a short time, then LONG dry spells.

[Corgigal]

23. And he has a giant ass.

As the owner of one, I always bet this guy. Won my first 50 cent trifecta, 114 dollars today.Thanks baby red.

[DinahMoeHum]

33. Sadly, our so-called POTUS is and has a bigger one.

[Duppers]

43. Same. Not an owner tho.

When I know little about the Derby entries, I look at the length of the horse, his legs, and especially how big his rump is - that's the power, imho.

[George II]

24. Did anyone notice that Baffert's other horse, Restoring Hope, clogged up the outer flow...

....making it more difficult for horses to close. After he did his job he faded to last and crawled home.

[a kennedy]

26. Awwwwwwww, wonder if he'll have post tramatic post disorder.

hope he’ll have a good life as well.

[a kennedy]

28. Got it'll on DVD will watch over and over for a while, and will see the job he did.

[George II]

31. In harness racing, the Filion brothers (Herve and Henri) were barred from racing in the same race...

....by Roosevelt Raceway for doing things like that, but it was more pronounced on the smaller half-mile track. One brother or the other would go to the lead early, the other would sit outside making it very difficult for anyone to close.

This was less perceptible.

Trainers have used "rabbits", horses that go straight to the lead to guarantee an honest pace, but this was different.

[Awsi Dooger]

39. Yes, and I entered this thread to make that point

It was by far the most understated aspect of how that race played out. Restoring Hope quite intentionally used himself up early to block the path of one specific horse...Noble Indy.

By far the most dangerous problem in the race for Justify was an early head to head duel with Noble Indy, who planned to go to the lead. Horses are worn out by head to head situations no matter how quick the pace is.

Very, very sharp for the Baffert connections to sense the opportunity to send Restoring Hope early and cut off Noble Indy. I didn't see that speculated anywhere beforehand. I certainly think of it.

Notice that Restoring Hope stayed far outside Justify so not to present any threat of a tight quarters duel with his own teammate. But Restoring Hope was ready to cut inside at any point to block Noble Indy.

In fact, at one point Noble Indy did threaten to move forward and Restoring Hope moved left to block him. The jockey on Restoring Hope even turned to his right and looked back at Noble Indy to make sure the job was accomplished.

I can't remember anything similar in all the Triple Crown attempts dating to the first one I remember as a young kid...Majestic Prince in 1969. I don't count the try for a tainted Triple a year earlier from Forward Pass, who lost the Derby but was elevated several days later when Dancer's Image was disqualified for an illegal substance.

Also, phenomenal job by Bob Baffert in the sense of good luck to embrace the Burger King guy, who was alongside Baffert when American Pharoah won the Belmont in 2015. As a Miamian I love Burger King and am thrilled that Burger King once again played a major role in a memorable event in American history.

Just too bad the Burger King guy was not handing out Whoppers at the trophy presentation. Sigh. Lost opportunity.

[George II]

41. Thanks. I thought my observations were a mix of sour grapes and paranoia. That really sucked.

[Awsi Dooger]

42. Restoring Hope's jockey actually looked back twice at Noble Indy

Once to his left and once to his right. I noticed that while watching the tape again a few minutes ago.

Noble Indy broke from 9 and Restoring Hope from 5. That enabled the strategy. It's such a long run from the 9 hole it allowed Florent Geroux on Restoring Hope to gun between horses and cut off Noble Indy.

Baffert did joke earlier in the week that, "I brought my own rabbit," in Restoring Hope. Most people viewed that as a joke, or an indication that Restoring Hope might go to the lead and provide a pacesetter for Justify. But once Mike Repole announced that Noble Indy would be sent to the front, the Baffert connections obviously devised another plan.

Race riding like this used to be much more common decades ago. Before my time, but I know that Hedevar was often used as a rabbit for Damascus against Dr. Fager in the '60s. Then Laz Barrera actually used a rabbit to help a Triple Crown winner. Barrera didn't believe that Affirmed could afford to sit behind Seattle Slew in the famous 1978 Jockey Club Gold Cup, so he entered a rabbit named Life's Hope and actually instructed the jockey not only to pressure Slew but to scream at him during the race. It sort of worked because the pace was incredibly fast for a mile and a half, but Affirmed got caught up in it himself and faded to last. Exceller defeated Slew by a nose but many analysts consider it Slew's greatest race, considering that he fought back against all odds despite such a suicidal pace.

Angel Cordero was the best tactical race rider I've ever seen, although some purists didn't appreciate it.

[George II]

44. Dr. Fager "lost" three times (actually four, he was first but disqualified once) in his career...

...the first one was as a green 2-year old, the other two times when Hedevar set up the race for Damascus. On Thursday I was discussing this race online, and mentioned that the connections were thinking of renaming Baffert's horse Restoring Hedevar.

I never realized that about the JCGC with Barrera and Life's Hope, I'll have to watch that one.

Funny you should mention Cordero, today's race (although different in some ways) reminded me of Cordero on Codex when he floated Genuine Risk wide in the Preakness. There was a claim of foul but it was dismissed. Other than the Dancer's Image drug disqualification, I don't know of any Triple Crown disqualifications.

You're right, Cordero was one of the shrewdest riders in history (another thing we were discussing earlier in the week) and a pretty good actor. I remember a race at Aqueduct where he was inside a horse in the stretch. He wasn't going to win, but he stood up in the saddle like he was checked, and the stewards disqualified the winner. I wasn't upset, I bet on Cordero's horse!!!

[Awsi Dooger]

49. I loved that 1980 Preakness

I was in college at USC so I knew all about D Wayne Lukas and Codex.

Hard to believe nowadays but newcomer Lukas neglected to nominate Codex for the Derby so he waited for the Preakness. Several friends of mine and I who knew each other from Hollywood Park expected Codex to win that Preakness.

As I'm sure you remember, Cordero not only took Genuine Risk wide but he swatted her on the nose with his whip, inspiring widespread commotion and a protest hearing a week later.

[George II]

45. I just watched the 1978 JCGC. Now I remember it (that was a LONG time ago for a 70-year old!)

That was the race where Affirmed's saddle slipped, and the jockey was virtually standing for more than the last half mile. But that was an idiotic early pace - if Life's Hope was in there to soften up Seattle Slew, what was Affirmed doing in that 3-way speed duel?

[Awsi Dooger]

48. My theory was that Affirmed recognized Slew as the horse he couldn't catch in the Marlboro

Barrera always said Affirmed was incredibly smart. He sat 3 lengths off Slew in the Marlboro Cup but was hopeless to make up any ground in the stretch. Very fast time of 1:45 4/5 despite Cordero taking Slew conservatively wide off the final turn.

Affirmed was obviously supposed to sit back in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. As soon as that didn't happen I told my friends Affirmed knows that's the horse who got away from him, and he's not going to let it happen again. Consequently it turned into a wild race with three horses at suicidal fractions.

Slew was so tight strung for that race he broke through the starting gate and had to be restrained and brought back.

Affirmed's saddle slipped but IMO he was spent and going to finish last anyways.

[AwakeAtLast]

46. Yes, I did!

I called it while my Mom & I watched.

[a kennedy]

58. and you may be onto something........looks like some owners are calling for an investigation

http://www.newser.com/story/260463/losing-owner-ignites-a-triple-crown-brouhaha.html?utm_source=8at8&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1636643155726281773&utm_campaign=20180611.

[demtenjeep]

27. really is a beautiful horse

congratulations Justify

[CountAllVotes]

29. More abt. Justify's blood line

4x great grandson of Secretariat through both Storm Cat and A.P. Indy is the word.

Impressive as can be!



Yippee!!

[joc46224]

30. Amazing race!

Ok, so my dad used to love horse racing. I remember him reading the Racing Form all the time and doing his own "handicapping". He took me to a few horse races when I was little but I couldn't watch because I kept worrying about the horse in last place and how they were feeling. Dumb but I couldn't seem to stop feeling sorry for the last place horse, especially if they were way way in the back. So while it was exciting to see Justify win the triple crown, it was also cool to see Gronkowski come from way in the back to end up 2nd.

[rurallib]

32. Will he share a bucket of oats with Trump at the White House?

looks like Trump has been eating a lot of oats himself.

[jmowreader]

35. I checked Justify's pedigree

http://www.pedigreequery.com/justify10

Justify is not descended from Secretariat through at least the fifth generation. He is descended from Seattle Slew, who is the only other Triple Crown winner to have carried an undefeated record into the Kentucky Derby.

These horses do have Secretariat in their bloodlines:
Free Drop Billy http://www.pedigreequery.com/free+drop+billy
Hofburg http://www.pedigreequery.com/index.php?query_type=horse&search_bar=horse&g=6&h=HOFBURG2
Restoring Hope http://www.pedigreequery.com/restoring+hope2 (This horse carries Secrettame, whose sire was Secretariat)
Noble Indy http://www.pedigreequery.com/noble+indy
Blended Citizen http://www.pedigreequery.com/blended+citizen

Most of these horses also contain Seattle Slew.

[Awsi Dooger]

40. Seattle Slew was a tremendously influential stallion

I'm sick that so many of his best offspring were ill fated, like Landaluce, Swale and Vindication.

Vindication was shown and mentioned briefly today on the telecast. I was convinced he would break the long Triple Crown drought. But he was injured and never raced again after winning the Breeders Cup Juvenile, and died very early in his stud career.

[JoeOtterbein]

36. Yippee!!!

Won big today. HURRAY!!!!

[Initech]

37. That was amazing!

[Rhiannon12866]

47. He is one beautiful and amazing horse!!!

[Awsi Dooger]

50. This link sums up the day at Belmont

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/horses/triple/belmont/2018/06/09/bob-baffert-burger-king-mascot-triple-crown-belmont-stakes/688092002/

[CountAllVotes]

54. Great story!

Thanks for the link!

[NanceGreggs]

51. And rumour has it ...

... he's already refused to go to the White House.

[oasis]

53. "Just to marvelous for words"

[ellie]

56. OMG! Are you serious?

That is amazing! Good horsey!