Justifreak set for 2025 debut just over year after surviving horrific van crash
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Justifreak makes his 2025 debut in a Wednesday allowance at Keeneland a little more than a year after surviving a horrific van accident that killed several stablemates.
But he'll be returning to the races as a winner.
“He worked really good here this morning,” trainer Eddie Kenneally said on Saturday. “We’re real happy with him. He’s training great.”
Justifreak, owned by his breeder, Buck Pond Farm, along with the Kenneally family, was winless in his first five starts, the last outing in that quintet coming March 20, 2024 at Fair Grounds. Five days later, a van bound for Keeneland with seven horses trained by Kenneally was involved in a single-vehicle accident on a Kentucky highway 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.
Three of the horses in the van died at the scene. Four others, including Justifreak, were extricated over the next several hours and transported to an equine hospital in Lexington.
Justifreak recovered well enough to return to the worktab on May 18 at Keeneland, and returned to the races in a June 30 maiden special weight at Churchill Downs. He was a one-length winner on the muddy, sealed track. The colt raced three more times in 2024, with two runner-up efforts in allowance company in Kentucky.
Justifreak, a 4-year-old son of Justify, has breezed five times at Keeneland in preparation for his season debut, including the stout five-furlong move in 1:00.60 on April 12 that Kenneally referenced. With Flavien Prat named to ride, he is the third choice on the morning line, behind Augusta Melody and Darioush, for Wednesday’s sixth race, a six-furlong, $120,000 conditioned allowance for 4-year-olds and up.
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