Justify set for massive weekend
Justify set for massive weekend
Triple Crown winner live in four Classics
By Sid Fernando
As ludicrous as it sounds to say, Coolmore America’s Justify has a chance to sweep four Classics—I’m including the G1 Kentucky Oaks here, only because the race appears to have morphed into the lone filly Classic in the U.S.—this weekend in N. America and Europe.
We tweeted about this today on X from the Werk Thoroughbred Consultants account “SireWatch” and again mentioned this possibility on Steve Byk’s “At the Races” Wednesday radio broadcast.
The two Kentucky Derby-bound colts are Just a Touch, trained by Brad Cox; and Just Steel, trained by D. Wayne Lukas. The former is lightly raced with only a win from three starts, but last out he was an impressive second to Sierra Leone in the G1 Toyota Blue Grass S. The latter has two wins from 11 starts and is plenty seasoned—a Lukas hallmark—for the Derby, and he enters the Classic after a just-as-impressive-as-Just a Touch second-place finish to Muth in the G1 Arkansas Derby. Moreover, last year Just Steel won a black-type race at Churchill Downs and obviously gets over the surface well.
Justify’s oldest foals are four and this his second go-around in Classic races, but he’s in a position to make history, and to make up for not getting that elusive first-crop Classic winner as his rival and contemporary Good Magic did last year with Derby winner Mage. But as we noted in a follow-up tweet, “Actually, to be in a position to sweep all four races is unprecedented on its own.”
Justify’s other Classics contenders were juvenile champions.
The Bill Mott-trained Just F Y I, a winner of three of four starts, was champion 2-year-old filly after winning the G1 Frizette and G1 NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
City of Troy, trained by Aidan O’Brien, is undefeated in three starts and was the champion European juvenile colt of 2023. Last year he impressively won the G1 Native Trails Dewhurst S. and will be Ballydoyle’s lone entrant in the G1 2000 Guineas, which is seen as a mark of high confidence.
Ramatuelle was the champion French 2-year-old filly last year. A winner of three of six starts, she was a half-length second in her season debut at Deauville on April 9, but connections are reportedly confident ahead of the G1 1000 Guineas. Trained by Christopher Head, she’s a Group 2 winner who was second against colts in the G1 Prix Morny.
It should be noted that O’Brien also trains the Justify filly Opera Singer, who was the champion juvenile European filly last year after winning three of five starts, including the G1 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac Criterium des Pouliches, but reportedly the filly had a training setback that kept her out of the 1000 Guineas.
To date, Justify is represented by 28 black-type winners in N. America, Europe, Australia (his 2-year-old filly Learning To Fly is a champion), and Japan, of which 18 are graded/group winners and six are Grade 1/Group 1 winners. He gets winners on dirt, turf, and all-weather, over various distances, and he is an exceptional sire of 2-year-olds though he never raced at two.
This weekend, he’s likely to get his first Classic winner—and quite possibly more. But even if he doesn’t, it’s important to remember that getting to the Classics is a prerequisite to winning them, and there hasn’t been a stallion in history that’s had a chance to take out the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, and both Guineas in the same year.