Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Just Steel

Just Steel

Colt by Justify – Irish Lights, by Fastnet Rock

Bred in Kentucky by Summerhill Farm ($500,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by BC Stables)

As the historic 150th Kentucky Derby approaches, a number of storylines converge behind Arkansas Derby runner-up Just Steel. The colt is by Justify, who won the 2018 Kentucky Derby and went on to become the 13th American Triple Crown winner. He is trained by the legendary D. Wayne Lukas, a Hall of Famer who has won four Derbies and was recently honored with the Kentucky Derby Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Lukas pulled out one of his familiar maxims when discussing Just Steel’s pedigree last weekend.

“We have opinions, horses have the facts,” Lukas said.

Justify has had a stellar start to his stud career, with 28 stakes winners worldwide from his first two crops, through April 21. Those include Eclipse Award champion Just F Y I, a prominent candidate for the Kentucky Oaks; European champions City of Troy and Opera Singer; and Australian champion Learning to Fly.

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Justify, who also is represented in this Kentucky Derby by Just a Touch, has inherited the versatility of his own sire, multiple Grade 1 winner Scat Daddy. That late stallion not only sired a Grade 1 winner at 1 1/2 miles on dirt in Justify, he sired the likes of crack turf sprinter Lady Aurelia, a European champion. Justify’s Grade 1 winners last year included everything from a dirt sprinter in Arabian Lion to a turf router in Aspen Grove.

Australian-born Irish Lights won the Australian 1000 Guineas at a mile. She is the dam of five winners from as many starters, including three stakes horses – Omei Sword, a Group 2 winner in Australia at up to six furlongs; Lipizzaner, a stakes winner in England at up to six furlongs; and Just Steel, a stakes winner at 6 1/2 furlongs last fall at Churchill Downs, but also Grade 1-placed around two turns this spring.

There is stamina deeper in the pedigree, including a connection to two of Lukas’s former trainees – Timber Country and Prince of Thieves. Just Steel’s third dam, River Crossing, is a half-sister to Broodmare of the Year Fall Aspen, who is the dam of Timber Country, winner of the 1995 Preakness Stakes after finishing third in the Kentucky Derby, and 1996 Derby third-place finisher Prince of Thieves.

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