Let’s cut right to the chase in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes: Completing a sweep of the Triple Crown is going to be difficult for Justify. Not that sweeping the Triple Crown is ever easy. It never is. Ever. I hope that’s clear. But, ironically, it’s easy to be less optimistic about a Justify Triple Crown sweep after he prevailed in the Preakness than before the race was even run. And that is because for the first time in his career Justify revealed Saturday that he is not invulnerable. Justify was so good before the Preakness that it would have been easy to think that he was some sort of machine. But it is clear now that Justify is flesh and bone like every other horse and, as such, he is susceptible to the ebbs and flows of form. It is plainly obvious - to me, anyway - that Justify tailed off his best form in the Preakness. His preliminary Beyer Figure of 97, the lowest of his career, is strong supporting evidence. But you didn’t have to know what Justify’s Beyer was to know that even though he won, his Preakness performance was short of what we have come to expect from him. Get the Belmont Stakes All-Access package for just $29.95! For one, Justify had to dig deep to prevail despite getting a trip that was easier than the one he got in the Kentucky Derby, when he contested a scorching early pace and still bounded away from his field through the stretch. The pace in the Preakness, while honest enough and contested between Justify and Good Magic, was still far less demanding than the Derby pace. In fact, the Preakness pace was entirely unremarkable. Such a forgiving Preakness pace should have enabled Justify to show something really special Saturday if he had held his prior form. But that was not the case. When you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, Justify needed the wire to narrowly resist a late charge from Bravazo, a colt he beat by eight big lengths when he won the Derby. Third, beaten about a length for it all, was Tenfold, who didn’t even qualify for the Derby after he faded to fifth in the Arkansas Derby despite a perfect trip. Good Magic ran out of gas after bringing the Preakness to Justify right out of the gate. And yet, Good Magic still managed to finish fourth, beaten only a little more than a length after finishing 2 ½ lengths behind Justify when second in the Derby. And then, perhaps most revealing of all, Lone Sailor, who had a relatively good trip in the Derby and still staggered late to finish eighth, beaten over nine lengths, finished a gaining fifth, beaten only about two lengths. You know the old standard: When that many horses are that close together at the finish, it is far less likely they all ran big, and far more likely it was less than a strong race. In fairness, even though Justify didn’t run lights-out Saturday like we have come to expect of him, it still speaks to his high quality that he was able to wheel back in two weeks after what had to be an extremely demanding effort in the Kentucky Derby and win a race like the Preakness with, by his standards, a “B” performance. For that reason alone, I’m still a huge fan. I still think he is a tremendous horse. But now that he has the Preakness in addition to the Derby, everything is all about Justify’s Triple Crown chances, and I can’t imagine the confidence level being where most would probably like it to be. After all, it’s now impossible not to wonder if the busy Triple Crown prep schedule Justify had to overcome to make and win the Derby might now be taking its toll. And now, Justify must find a way to deliver a stronger performance in the Belmont Stakes, because the way he ran Saturday probably won’t get that job done. If any 3-year-old this year can manage the form rebound needed for this task, it would be the supremely talented Justify. But does the three weeks he has until the Belmont Stakes afford him enough time to pull it off? That seems like an enormous ask. Preakness weekend notes: * Irish War Cry was very good winning Friday’s Pimlico Special, and not only because he dominated, and put behind him his dismal outing in the Gulfstream Park Mile, in which he gave way early and was eased. Irish Way Cry couldn’t have gotten anything out of the Gulfstream Mile. So in a sense, the Pimlico Special was really his first representative outing in three months. That adds context to his performance Friday, and makes what he did, and the way he did it, seem even better. Irish War Cry was a quality 3-year-old last year. His victories in the Wood Memorial and Holy Bull were strong enough for him to go off at less than 5-1 in a 20-horse Kentucky Derby field, and made him the favorite in the Belmont Stakes, in which he was easily second best. Given the state of the older dirt male division, Irish War Cry clearly has a license to be a serious player this year. The older dirt male division has been struggling to find its footing, let alone a leader, since the retirement of Horse of the Year Gun Runner after his victory in the Pegasus World Cup back in January. And while West Coast, last year’s champion 3-year-old male, was the logical heir apparent, what we eventually see out of him after his second in the Dubai World Cup seven long weeks ago is an open question. The door is wide open for you, Irish War Cry. * In the old days, DRF past performances used to have a designation next to a horse’s name that was intended to express that horse’s wet-track ability. There were three such designations. If a horse sported an asterisk next to his or her name, it meant he or she was a good off-track horse. An “X,” which was much more rare than an asterisk, meant an excellent wet track performer, and an “X” in a circle, which was like the unicorn of wet track designations, meant a superior off-track horse. Those designations were very subjective and were retired a long time ago. But if they were still around, Red Ruby would be a candidate for at least an “X.” Red Ruby romped in the slop in Friday’s ostensible feature at Pimlico, the Black-Eyed Susan. The only other wet-track start in Red Ruby’s still-young career was in the Martha Washington in her 2018 bow, and she romped in that one, too. And those two efforts were by far her best. Generally speaking, I subscribe to the theory that horses either dislike off tracks, or aren’t terribly bothered by them. And I believe horses who aren’t bothered by wet tracks and run to form on them are frequently made to look like super mud larks by the horses who dislike wet going. I also believe the actual number of horses who tangibly move up on wet tracks – I mean, really and truly improve – is much smaller than widely thought. But Red Ruby might just be one who does. * You have to be careful comparing 3-year-olds and older horses this time of year in specialty divisions like turf or sprinters. That said, it's hard to envision Mitole not being one of the best sprinters in the country right now off his smashing score Saturday’s Chick Lang Stakes, even if it was over fellow 3-year-olds. Mitole won the Lang absolutely laughing, his third straight such score. And there isn’t any reason to think he won’t only get better as he matures. That’s an exciting prospect. For what it’s worth (and it’s certainly worth something), Mitole ran faster winning the Lang than the older Switzerland did winning the Maryland Sprint two races later – 1:09.29 to 1:09.43. And he did so despite the Lang’s first half mile going slower. * Remember when Switzerland, who won the Maryland Sprint going away, was the poster boy for professional maidens? Remember how he burned the equivalent of the gross national product of a small country when he lost his first seven starts, twice at 2-5 and twice at 4-5? Seems so long ago. The Maryland Sprint was his fourth straight victory, the last three after switching from the Chad Brown to Steve Asmussen barn. By the way, Asmussen also trains Mitole. * Ax Man is going to win some very important races before he’s through. But after the way he made a show of his field in Saturday’s Sir Barton, his third runaway win from four career starts, that’s merely stating the obvious.