Justify's performance at the 2018 Belmont Stakes on Saturday, one that made him just the 13th horse in history to win the Triple Crown, will be shown over and over again.
Bob Baffert's colt backed up excellent showings at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes earlier in the year with another win at Elmont Park. It was the kind of performance befitting a Triple Crown champion too, as Justify set the pace, laid down the gauntlet to the rest of the field and outlasted his rivals.
Gronkowski was in second, just under two lengths behind Justify, while Hofburg was came third.
Justify Dominant in Triple Crown Triumph
The Kentucky Derby Twitter account provided footage of the final stages of the Belmont, when Justify put the hammer down to leave his rivals trailing:
Kentucky Derby @KentuckyDerbyWatch it again...and again....and again. Justify wins the Triple Crown! https://t.co/XbycQAeINt
As ESPN Stats & Info noted, Justify reached this accomplishment without having lost a race in his career:
ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfoJustify is the 13th horse to win the Triple Crown. Justify also joins 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew (below) as the only horses to win the Triple Crown as an undefeated horse. https://t.co/SjtFjvDLgx
The footage emphatically illustrates that, in Justify, we have one of the most impressive horses of this generation.
The chestnut colt showed many different strengths on his way to the box set of titles. In Kentucky and Preakness, he won in mudbaths, as the rain tipped down before each race. At Belmont, in fairer conditions, Justify simply showed his exceptional pace.
There were some fears the longer distance in the third Triple Crown race may have hindered Justify on Saturday, having already won two gruelling races in recent weeks. But jockey Mike E. Smith clearly had huge confidence in his ride, entrusting him to set a tempo the rest of the field wasn't able to match.
As At The Races noted, the winning jockey said after the win that this was the pinnacle of his long racing career:
At The Races @AtTheRacesMike Smith: "Bob Baffert has helped make a lot of my goals come true. Today, he made my dream come true." #TripleCrown https://t.co/H3PCuQEzT4
Given Justify hadn't ran a race until February this year, it's been a remarkable rise for Baffert's horse.
It's easy to forget Justify bucked a 136-year trend by breaking the Apollo Curse to win the Kentucky Derby, becoming the first horse since 1882 that hadn't debuted as a two-year old to win the Run for the Roses.
But that freshness clearly benefitted Justify, as in the final stages of this one, there was never any danger he would be reeled in.
BloodHorse's Jeremy Balan praised what has been an incredible start to Justify's racing career:
Jeremy Balan @BH_JBalanI'm far from a Thoroughbred racing historian, but it would be hard for me to imagine any horse has had a better start to its career. Six races, six wins, a Triple Crown, --all in 112 days. #Justify
Although Justify has earned his place in history with these three wins, some will dispute whether he's one of the best ever. Sports analyst Darren Rovell calculated how far behind Secretariat the 2018 champion would have been if they had gone head-to-head at Belmont:
Darren Rovell @darrenrovellHow insane was Secretariat’s Belmont 45 years ago today? The horse would have beaten Justify (based on time) by 25 LENGTHS. https://t.co/6gTIOr10nQ
Even so, that's unlikely to sour the celebrations of Justify's camp—and especially those of Baffert, who has now trained two Triple Crown winners in the past four seasons.
It's also worth considering just how rare this treble of triumphs has been in the modern era despite American Pharoah's success in 2015. Prior to that, no horse had won the Triple Crown for 37 years; for Justify to do so and in this manner makes him a special colt indeed.
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