LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An encore appearance by the newly minted Triple Crown winner Justify will be an added bonus for fans during the Saturday night card at Churchill Downs.
Track officials announced Tuesday that trainer Bob Baffert and the ownership partners in Justify have granted permission for the colt to be paraded on the racetrack and in the paddock and winner’s circle between races Saturday, with a final announcement on exact times due Wednesday. First post Saturday is 6 p.m. Eastern.
Aidan O’Brien on Monday revealed plans to overseas media to race the 3-year-old colt Mendelssohn in the July 7 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park and in the Sept. 22 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing with a final American start this year in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Driven by the upset stakes victories of Laurel Park-based trainers Cal Lynch and Tim Keefe, Mid-Atlantic horses scored an amazing six victories during the three-day Belmont Stakes Festival.
With the exception of the top sprinter Imperial Hint, who paid $5.40 as the favorite while winning the Grade 2 True North by a neck for Parx-based Luis Carvajal Jr., the others all paid handsomely, with their prices ranging from $18.60 to $54.50.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The year may not even be half over, but in the race for Horse of the Year, it’s over.
Justify is the fifth Triple Crown winner since the Eclipse Award era began in 1971, and all four previous Triple Crown winners during that span – Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977, Affirmed in 1978, and American Pharoah in 2015 – were voted Horse of the Year, regardless of whether the second half of their 3-year-old year was brilliant or, in the case of Seattle Slew, a washout. Of course, all four also were named champion 3-year-old male those years.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old Gidu worked five furlongs in 1:00.10 Sunday morning over the Belmont turf course and left Monday for a circuitous trip to England for a start at the Royal Ascot meet.
“I thought he breezed very well, went off settled, relaxed, finished up strongly,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, who had John Velazquez work the colt.
Gidu, winner of the Paradise Creek last out, shipped to Kentucky on Monday, and then on Tuesday was to travel to Indianapolis, where he was to get on a flight to London.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Wesley Ward will soon depart for England to join the 10 horses he sent to run at next week’s Royal Ascot meeting. He hopes to carry overseas the momentum he’s built in New York this spring.
Ward has had a dynamite Belmont spring-summer meet, with 12 winners from 32 starters through the first 29 days. He’s won three stakes, including last Thursday’s $150,000 Astoria for 2-year-old fillies with Athens Queen.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Bob Baffert’s three stakes victories at Belmont Park on Saturday – capped by Justify’s front-running score in the Belmont Stakes – continued a remarkable run of good fortune in New York for the Hall of Fame trainer, who is based in Southern California.
Starting with American Pharoah’s victory in the 2015 Belmont Stakes, Baffert has won 11 races from his last 22 starters at Belmont Park. Those wins include two Belmont Stakes and other Grade 1 fixtures such as the Metropolitan Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Ogden Phipps, and Acorn.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Two turf allowances will anchor an eight-race Thursday program that opens another four-day race week at Churchill Downs. Both are part of the Single 6, which will start with $450,840 in a jackpot reserved for a solo winning ticket.
Race 7 is the nominal feature, with no more than eight fillies and mares going a mile under a two-other-than condition. Dagney’s Warrior, looking for a third straight victory, all for trainer Mike Tomlinson and jockey Adam Beschizza, is the morning-line favorite in a 10-horse field that includes two main track only designees.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Triple Crown winner Justify is scheduled to be out of the public eye for the foreseeable future – with the highly possible exception of a parade between races Saturday night at Churchill Downs.
Justify arrived at Churchill at 1:25 p.m. Monday following a flight from New York, where on Saturday the colt attained immortality by winning the Belmont Stakes and becoming the 13th Triple Crown winner. He is just the second to complete the sweep while unbeaten, following Seattle Slew (1977).
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Backyard Heaven, a smashing winner of the Grade 2 Alysheba earlier in the Churchill Downs spring meet, was expected to be the top-weighted starter when entries were taken here Wednesday for the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap.
