Justify

The King must by now be on pretty friendly terms with Aidan O'Brien, the trainer who has spent more time than any in his counting house. On Tuesday he handed him the trainer's prize for the five-furlong sprint named in His Majesty's honour and 48 hours later another was dished out for the longest Group 1 race run in Britain. The Gold Cup, with its 219-year history, is also one of the most cherished races of the week. In these eyes it ranks above all others, and a huge portion...

In one of the very finest of Gold Cups, Scandinavia (Justify) ousted Trawlerman (Golden Horn) to provide a fitting crowning moment for Aidan O'Brien as the Ballydoyle maestro reached 100 Royal Ascot winners. Coming of age in the race that draws unusual sentiment, the 11-8 favourite needed every yard of the two-and-a-half mile trip to wear down the Gosdens' gallant title-holder and for most of it looked unlikely to do so. But, with Ryan Moore at his formidable best, Scandinavia got it done very late to add suitable drama and...

It all began with a pretty innocuous suggestion. Little did Craig Bernick know at the time but his mother Carol's plan to go and try to buy some colts instead of concentrating solely on fillies at the breeding stock sales would bear fruit at Royal Ascot less than two years down the line.  But in Nola Soul, one of five colt foals that Bernick purchased in the winter of 2024, the family now has a potential stallion prospect on their hands after the son of Justify backed up his impressive...

Justify had the favourite for Thursday's Listed Chesham Stakes Aix La Chapelle withdrawn at the start, but remarkably still filled the first two places with his sons Nola Soul and On Just Terms. Bred by John Gunther, the Fozzy Stack-trained TDN Rising Star Nola Soul was always prominent under Seamie Heffernan and stayed on to gain the advantage approaching the furlong pole en route to a half-length verdict over the Joseph O'Brien-trained newcomer On Just Terms. Aperoll (Ghaiyyath) was a head back in third. "From day one, he had the...

OCALA, FL - A filly by Triple Crown winner Justify became the highest-priced horse to ever sell at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training when bringing a final bid of $1.4 million from Speedway Stables and the three-day auction continued to produce figures ahead of its record-setting 2025 renewal through its second session Wednesday in Central Florida. Through two days of trade, 351 juveniles have sold for $18,883,000. The average stands at $53,798 and the median at $27,000. Last year's two-day renewal of the June...

Marette Farrell outbattled Donato Lanni in a war of phone bids at opposite ends of the pavilion to acquire a filly by Justify (hip 428) for an OBS June record $1.4 million on behalf of Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner's Speedway Stable. Farrell did her bidding on the phone with OBS's Andrew Fernung sitting in the back of the pavilion, while Lanni was on the phone with Wade Cunningham in the auction stand. Justin Holmberg, sitting directly next to Cunningham, egged his fellow auctioneer on several times during the bidding,...

All those so avid to see how Flightline will fare in his second career should surely be gratified if he can prove as effective as the last champion to enter stud with anything approaching his freakish reputation. Two new stakes winners last Saturday, one on either coast, took Justify past 50 from four crops. (His fifth, at this point, having barely entered the fray.) One, GIII Summertime Oaks winner Mizumi, became his 24th graded stakes scorer in the Northern Hemisphere; among which 10 have scored at the highest level, including...

As caller Frank Mirahmadi noted: she broke her maiden in May and is a Graded winner in June. Baoma Corp's Mizumi (Justify) ran to her looks, and strolled home to a convincing GIII Summertime Oaks victory in just her second career start. Unveiled in the aforementioned May 2 maiden at this venue, she sailed through the 6 1/2-panel main track dash to earn an 85 Beyer, and stretched out to 1 1/16-miles for the first time here. The betting public was wholly unbothered by her being the least experienced in...

Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo) will be back to defend his title in Saturday's GIII Salvator Mile S., one of four stakes races on Monmouth Park's 10-race Haskell Preview Day card. After bringing $1.3 million from advisor Pedro Lanz on behalf of the Saudi-based KAS Stables at last year's Keeneland November sale, the 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' was a game winner of the GII Cigar Mile H. Dec. 6 in his first start for his new connections. A respectable fourth in the G1 Saudi Cup Feb. 14, the Brad...

By the early 2000s, the commercial Thoroughbred breeding industry still resembled a relatively broad ecosystem. Elite stallions mattered enormously, but a wide range of sires maintained meaningful market share, regional programs remained viable, and biological limits naturally constrained how dominant any one stallion could become. That landscape has changed dramatically. A review of sire progeny earnings distributions from 2001 through 2025 reveals one of the clearest long-term structural shifts in modern Thoroughbred breeding: an increasingly small number of stallions now account for a growing share of the sport's economic output....

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but for the reigning queen of the GII Bed O' Roses Stakes, it proved to be figurative weight she could valiantly bear en route to her title defense. Ways and Means (Practical Joke) looked to be beaten at the head of affairs, but gamely re-rallied in the final yards to nail a wildly unlucky Grand Job (Justify) by a nose in an exciting 2026 running at Saratoga. The Chad Brown trainee has had a very short career the last two seasons--her 2025...

Aidan O'Brien annexed the last three editions of the Curragh's Sky Bet Club Irish EBF Maiden--with Amadeus Mozart, Henri Matisse and Unquestionable--and made it four in a row when Aix La Chapelle (Justify), a son of dual Group 1 winner Immortal Verse (Pivotal), pounced in the closing stages of the seven-furlong contest. "They were horses that we were getting out in case they were [Listed] Chesham horses and we're delighted with him," O'Brien commented. "They went along there and he did well as he was never away [from home] and...