Justifreak defies the odds in comeback victory

Justifreak was lukewarm on the board and returned $22.84 to backers for a maiden victory Sunday at Churchill Downs. But in many ways, the colt was the longest shot to race beneath the twin spires this season and had already prevailed just by walking into the paddock. Justifreak returned to the races just more than three months after a horrific van accident that claimed the lives of several of his Eddie Kenneally-trained stablemates on a Kentucky highway.

“It’s always special to win a race but today is a little more special,” Kelly Wheeler, an assistant to Kenneally, wrote on social media. “Justifreak gets it done his first time racing after being involved in our tragic van accident.”

Early in the morning of March 25, a Creech Horse Transportation van, bound for Keeneland with seven horses trained by Kenneally, was involved in a single-vehicle accident in which it crossed the median, dislodging the trailer from the kingpin and ripping the cab from the frame, before colliding with an embankment. The driver survived.

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Three of the horses in the van died at the scene, while four others were extricated over the course of the next several hours and transported to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington. Two of those survivors were individually identified by their owners as Justifreak, owned by his breeder, Buck Pond Farm, along with the Kenneally family; and Vitement, owned by Showdown Kings LLC, Matthew Wiley, and Richard Donworth. Wiley reported in mid-April that, while the 3-year-old Vitement was recovering well at a Kentucky farm, the colt, who was third in the Ozark Stakes in February at Oaklawn, would most likely be retired from racing.

“Some health complications with Vitement uncovered post-accident will put him in surgery with an extended layoff and he is unlikely to resume a career in racing,” Wiley wrote on social media.

Meanwhile, Justifreak recovered well enough to return to the work tab on May 18 at Keeneland. He posted five breezes in preparation for his return to racing – including a bullet half-mile on June 21. The colt was making his sixth career start Sunday at Churchill Downs, after most recently racing just five days before the van accident at Fair Grounds. His best effort from his five prior starts came when second to the well-regarded Nash last November at Churchill, with eventual Wood Memorial winner Resilience finishing third.

Justifreak, with Tyler Gaffalione in the irons, dueled inside in Sunday’s six-furlong maiden race before turning back challenger Uncle William in the lane to win by a length over the field of 12. He finished the six furlongs on a muddy, sealed track in a snappy 1:09.70.

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