OT: Justify Wins Triple Crown!

[j66kicker]

 

[JordyG]

A fine horse. After Secretariat I've never seen a sleeker, smoother, more dominant triple crown horse than Seattle Slew. Justify and Affirmed would be a good match race though. Among non winners however Spectacular Bid (who should have won but suffered the toughest of safety pins) was the best I ever saw. If Bid would have won I'd have taken him over Slew in a close one. Sorry. Never saw Citation.

 

[GoingPostal]

Thanks. I didn't get a chance to watch the race so I appreciate your letting us know what happened.

 

[VAUConnFan]

Just read something that stated the Justify had one of the top 5 aggregate triple crown times. Surprisingly, Seattle Slew is among them. Surprisingly, because Slew was a triple crown winner with more than his share of critics. He ranks among my favorite thoroughbreds not for his triple crown achievements, but for his breeding barn achievements; He sired a slew of great horses. Not surprisingly, Secretariat had the top aggregate time; By a wide margin. I would like to submit an argument that if Affirmed has the second best aggregate time, Alydar has to have the third best time because he was second within a length in all three races. And I will always be convinced that Alydar was the better horse based on offspring.

 

[JordyG]

Just read something that stated the Justify had one of the top 5 aggregate triple crown times. Surprisingly, Seattle Slew is among them. Surprisingly, because Slew was a triple crown winner with more than his share of critics. He ranks among my favorite thoroughbreds not for his triple crown achievements, but for his breeding barn achievements; He sired a slew of great horses. Not surprisingly, Secretariat had the top aggregate time; By a wide margin. I would like to submit an argument that if Affirmed has the second best aggregate time, Alydar has to have the third best time because he was second within a length in all three races. And I will always be convinced that Alydar was the better horse based on offspring.

I agree. Let me edit. Double like. Alydar may have actually been the better horse, but Affirmed was the better competitor, and that's what racing/performance is about. I understand that Kelso used to stop and preen for the cameras. Then went out and kicked horsebutt. Seabiscuit showed up when the bell rung. I think that Ruffian may have been the most blessed horse, both standing still and in motion, that I ever saw. Just brute poetry. But when the bell rung a flock of birds was her undoing. I guess that's why it's called horse racing and not horse showing.

 

[JellyBean]

Wow. Pretty awesome. Nice to see something happening like this especially when for so long there were some horses that were a race away from this huge honor. Now we have had 2 horses in three years. Pretty awesome.

 

[Orangutan]

Justify is surely a worthy champion. I don't think I'll ever treasure him quite like I do American Pharoah, though. The second one (of my lifetime anyway) isn't quite the same.

Now to see if he can match Pharoah, who won the Breeders Cup Classic with an outstanding 120 Beyer.

 

[Golden Husky]

I wrote about thoroughbred racing for 45 years, including covering three Triple Crown winners but I don't think American Pharoah or Justify deserve to be considered among the greatest horses of the past 60 years. Certainly, winning the Triple Crown is a great achievement but it's just one test of greatness.

A truly remarkable thoroughbred also should run fast and beat quality horses.

American Pharoah ran a quick Breeders' Cup Classic but didn't demonstrate sustained speed beyond that and never beat a horse that will enter the National Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. If the best horse you beat is Keen Ice, that's not saying much.

The fact that horses could not close on Justify during a Belmont Stakes last half-mile in 50 seconds speaks loudly to the quality of this year's crop of 3-year-olds. And it's not like the field exhausted itself through an opening mile in 1:38. Fact is, you could have timed this year's Belmont Stakes with a sun dial.

I'm pleased that many of you recalled the names of some of the great horses who did not win a Triple Crown, to which I'd add Forego, who carried 130 or more pounds of 23 occasions--13 of those victories--and a trio of horses from the sixties, Buckpasser, Damascus and Dr. Fager, who met in the 1967 Woodward Stakes, won by Damascus. Dr. Fager may have been the fastest horse I ever saw. He carried 134 pounds when he set a world record (1:32.1) in the mile and ended his career by winning the 7-furlong Vosburgh in 1:20.1 under--no misprint here--a staggering 139 pounds.

It's not uncommon to view the past with more fondness than it deserves and, perhaps, I am guilty of just that, romancing the horses of the sixties and seventies beyond their abilities. But this crusty old turf writer does believe those were better horses than American Pharoah and Justify.

Now, get off my lawn.

 

[Rixxx]

I want to simply and reverently report that Secretariat blew away the field of the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths. In my small mind, the greatest racing achievement ever. "Big Red" was fast. I can't think Triple Crown without getting that image out of my head.

 

[Golden Husky]

I want to simply and reverently report that Secretariat blew away the field of the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths. In my small mind, the greatest racing achievement ever. "Big Red" was fast. I can't think Triple Crown without getting that image out of my head.

Yes. I was there; my first year covering the Triple Crown.

A few hours after the event, after everyone had filed, Charles Hatton of Daily Racing Form turned to me and asked, "You understand what you just witnessed, kid?" I assured Hatton that I understood but he wasn't buying it. "No you don't," he insisted. "But 30 or 40 years from now, when you've never seen a horse as great as Secretariat, you'll understand." He was right and now I do.

I have a framed photograph of myself with Secretariat hanging in my home. My children will inherit it and while I hope they'll have some appreciation for their dad, I doubt--like me 45 years ago--they'll be able to understand the true greatness of Secretariat.

 

[Monte]

I want to simply and reverently report that Secretariat blew away the field of the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths. In my small mind, the greatest racing achievement ever. "Big Red" was fast. I can't think Triple Crown without getting that image out of my head.

I agree. He was the best I ever saw.

 

[Orangutan]

A truly remarkable thoroughbred also should run fast and beat quality horses.

American Pharoah ran a quick Breeders' Cup Classic but didn't demonstrate sustained speed beyond that and never beat a horse that will enter the National Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. If the best horse you beat is Keen Ice, that's not saying much.

I feel like Pharoah could have beaten quality horses but to have done that he'd had to have raced at 4. As I recall, the Classic field was not considered especially strong that year and the horse expected to be his toughest competition, Liam's Map, entered (and won) the Mile instead. And there's so much money in breeding that there's no way a Triple Crown winning colt is ever going to race at 4. So we'll never know.

And if you're trying to win a Triple Crown, there's no incentive to run fast times in any given race. In every race up until the Belmont, just do enough to win and leave whatever you can in the tank for next time. Pharoah did have to go all out to win the Derby but I feel like in his other races he perhaps could have been pushed more if a great time was the objective.

So yeah, I think we'll never know if he was truly a great horse and we'll probably never know with Justify either.

At any rate, I'm sure you forgotten more about racing than I'll ever know, so forgive me if any/all of the above is bunk

 

[RockyMTblue2]

"He's moving like a tremendous machine...." There are princes in horse racing and any triple Crown Winner is one, no matter the quality of the field around him. But there is only one King. King Red. I love that Jack Nicklaus watched the race at home alone and like so many of us wept at what he saw as recounted by Heywood Hale Brown.



Hell, they couldn't keep Secretariat and the field in the same camera shot from the mile pole on!

 

[Golden Husky]

I feel like Pharoah could have beaten quality horses but to have done that he'd had to have raced at 4. As I recall, the Classic field was not considered especially strong that year and the horse expected to be his toughest competition, Liam's Map, entered (and won) the Mile instead. And there's so much money in breeding that there's no way a Triple Crown winning colt is ever going to race at 4. So we'll never know.

And if you're trying to win a Triple Crown, there's no incentive to run fast times in any given race. In every race up until the Belmont, just do enough to win and leave whatever you can in the tank for next time. Pharoah did have to go all out to win the Derby but I feel like in his other races he perhaps could have been pushed more if a great time was the objective.

So yeah, I think we'll never know if he was truly a great horse and we'll probably never know with Justify either.

At any rate, I'm sure you forgotten more about racing than I'll ever know, so forgive me if any/all of the above is bunk

You make some good points, Orangutan, especially about horses being rushed off to the breeding shed. Fast times usually are the result of quality horses pushing the pace and that just hasn't been the case recently.

 

[Golden Husky]

"He's moving like a tremendous machine...." There are princes in horse racing and any triple Crown Winner is one, no matter the quality of the field around him. But there is only one King. King Red. I love that Jack Nicklaus watched the race at home alone and like so many of us wept at what he saw as recounted by Heywood Hale Brown.



Hell, they couldn't keep Secretariat and the field in the same camera shot from the mile pole on!

Chic Anderson's call is a part of racing legend, now. Sadly, only in his late forties, Chic died about five years after that call.

Secretariat's appeal extended well beyond horse racing. His image appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated in the same week and he was so popular that Penny Chenery had to hire the William Morris Agency just to handle his mail.

Interestingly, had not Christopher Chenery died and Penny needed money to settle her father's estate, the plan was to race Secretariat at four, including a trip to Paris for the Arc de Triomphe. Given that Secretariat set a course record the first time he ran on grass, I have little doubt he would have been difficult to beat at Longchamp.

As Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form wrote, "Exterminator and Man o' War have come and gone since the present writer's first acquaintance with the sport. Impressions of longstanding tend to become fixed and assume a prescriptive right not to be questioned. But Secretariat is the most capable horse we ever saw and geriatrics defeat any thought of ever seeing his like again. Secretariat was the Horse of the Century and his only reference point is himself."

 

[RockyMTblue2]

My second favorite quote coming out of Secretariat's Triple Crown Belmont also was reported by Heywood Hale Brown. He recounts how when Secretariat was led off after the race to the back side the stewarts came to perform a saliva test and a fan said: "Look at them, they're treating him as if he was just another horse."

My family is deep into horses. My youngest was 4th in the college nationals as a freshman in equitation, but her strength was jumpers. Me, I just tagged along and learned to ride to stay involved. I use to ride a 16-3 thoroughbred and my favorite thing with him was to gallop over a varied terrain course around a small lake in North Salem New York. We'd thunder up a moderate incline - that was were we'd really let it all hang out - and it was like you were just suspended in air, the wind rushing by. Then one day as we crested the hill he dead stopped and I did a cartwheel over his head and came down running - love to have a video of that. I came to a stop and looked back and he's just standing there with a total poker face. He was probably thinking "if you hadn't dropped the reins and kept your leg on me that wouldn't have happened ....jerk."

 

[BigBird]

Justify’s last furlong or so was magnificent. Just where/when you might expect him to slow down or fatigue a bit, he responds to Mike Smith and runs ever stronger to the finish. It was for the rest of the field to look tired.

 

[Ouremblem]

Let’s hope Bob Baffert brings him to Saratoga. I’m not optimistic, but we can hope.