{"id":11905,"date":"2018-09-17T13:53:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T19:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/?p=11905"},"modified":"2018-09-17T13:53:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T19:53:30","slug":"triple-crown-winner-justify-arrives-coolmore-ashford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/triple-crown-winner-justify-arrives-coolmore-ashford\/","title":{"rendered":"Triple Crown Winner Justify Arrives at Coolmore Ashford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The history of the Triple Crown can be traced to 1919, when horse racing writers took note of the first winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, the great Sir Barton. However, 1930 was the year when the phrase became common parlance, when Gallant Fox won the Triple Crown for his breeder, Belair Stud, and then, five years later, his son Omaha also won the Triple Crown, the only father\/son duo to complete such a feat, and for the same breeder. Both were trained by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, the only trainer in history to train two Triple Crown winners, until this year. Both were retired to stand at stud at Claiborne Farm, Gallant Fox in 1931 and Omaha in 1936, though Gallant Fox was a highly esteemed sire there for many years, while Omaha, lacking in fertility, was sent in 1943 to New York and later to Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Calumet Farm, in its inimitable heyday, also earned two Triple Crowns and stood both their champions together, Whirlaway, winner of the Triple Crown in 1941, retired to Calumet in 1944, and Citation in 1948, retired in 1952. Eddie Arcaro rode both, the only jockey to ride two Triple Crown winners, and the Calumet pair were trained by the only father\/son combination to complete such a feat, Ben Jones and Jimmy Jones.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now, this year, a spectacular horse and his magical trainer enter this rarified atmosphere. Justify, a man among boys from the first time race fans laid eyes upon him, is our Triple Crown hero, trained by the silver haired wonder Bob Baffert, who won the same prestigious prize in 2015 with American Pharoah. Justify, owned by a conglomerate of owners that includes the China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing and Winstar Farm, among others, announced Friday, September 14, that the long-rumored agreement to stand Justify at Ashford Stud (Coolmore America), in Versailles, Kentucky, had become reality, and Ashford too joins this elite company, with Claiborne and Calumet, as only the third farm to ever stand two Triple Crown winners at the same time.<\/p>\n

Ashford is renowned for its management of young stallions, frequently seeing their young studs at the top of freshman sires lists, and this year the premier of American Pharoah\u2019s yearlings at Keeneland September have hit the proverbial home run, with the optimistic marketplace valuing them as precious as gold. As of today, with the first day of Book Two completed, American Pharoah\u2019s yearlings are third in average, behind only Uncle Mo (another outrageously successful young stud made at Ashford) and Medaglia d\u2019Oro. This elite company for an untested, freshman sire is unheard of; American Pharoah\u2019s average, with 40 yearlings sold, is just under $450,000, with just under $18 million in accrued results now in Keeneland\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n

\"\"Justify is a magnificent chestnut colt by Scat Daddy, out of the Ghostzapper mare Stage Magic, and Baffert further tempted the racing gods by leaving the colt unraced at two. His career began at three, and no other unraced two-year-old has ever won the Triple Crown. Justify was considered to be completely untested, and disbelievers and naysayers abounded before the Kentucky Derby, only to be silenced by Justify\u2019s magnificent win. Even the Preakness win couldn\u2019t silence the cynics, who predicted a son of Scat Daddy would never win the mile and a half Belmont Stakes. Once again, wrong. The great sadness is that this big, gorgeous, muscular hunk of horseflesh will not be running in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic; he was retired with filling in an ankle that prohibited training.<\/p>\n

A stud fee has yet to be set for Justify, but we can assume Ashford will do him justice. American Pharoah\u2019s 2016 stud fee was set at $200,000, though rumors suggested that for bringing multiple, stakes winning or producing mares to him, or even single, spectacular mares, breeders could bargain that down to $100,000, stands and nurses. To assume that a similar fee will be set for Justify makes sense, and given the untimely loss of Justify\u2019s superstar dad, Scat Daddy, and Scat Daddy\u2019s success on both sides of the Atlantic, on dirt and on turf, short and long, an even higher fee would not surprise. The excitement caused at Keeneland September by the first yearlings of American Pharoah will certainly be echoed when, in 2021, Justify\u2019s first yearlings appear in Lexington, thrilling buyers and fans alike.<\/p>\n

— Roberta Smoodin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to Thoroughbred People contributor and bloodstock consultant Roberta Smoodin for this article. Roberta offers pedigree analysis for sales\u00a0and breeding recommendation services for your broodmares – please contact Roberta at RSmoodin@aol.com<\/a> for more information.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"The history of the Triple Crown can be traced to 1919, when horse racing writers took note of the first winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, the great Sir Barton. However, 1930 was the year when the phrase became common parlance, when Gallant Fox won the Triple Crown for his breeder, Belair Stud, and then, five years later, his son Omaha also won the Triple Crown, the only father\/son duo to complete such a feat, and for the same breeder. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloodstock","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}