Justify

Storm Boy, a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed when trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, is set to join the Coolmore Australia roster in 2025, it was announced on Tuesday. He has been introduced at a fee of A$16,500 (inc GST). The son of Justify was bought by Coolmore and a group of their friends and clients for an undisclosed sum after he made it three from three as a juvenile in the Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic. On his next start he won the G2 Skyline Stakes,...

First and foremost, let's salute Journalism (Curlin) and his connections for confirming that only feebleness in horsemen, not horses, menaces the Triple Crown schedule. In last weekend replicating his Churchill challenge to crop leader Sovereignty (Into Mischief), moreover actually moving up his numbers, the only horse to contest all three legs demonstrated precisely the prowess that breeders have long sought from this series. That deserves to be remembered once Journalism goes to stud. Obviously, the GI Belmont Stakes is not asking quite so exacting a question just now. By the...

Ruling Court has been ruled out of Saturday's G1 Betfred Derby after trainer Charlie Appleby judged the ground to be too slow for the son of Justify. The 2,000 Guineas winner had been due to start as one of the favourites. "The ground conditions were a concern yesterday with Desert Flower. William said yesterday it was genuinely good-to-soft, but we appreciated that it was drying out through the course of the day," he explained. "We arrived here today with an open mind, let William ride the first race, but he...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Led by Breeders' Cup winners Fierceness (City of Light) and White Abarrio (Race Day), a talented field of five will line up for Saturday's GI Metropolitan Handicap on the stacked GI Belmont Stakes program at Saratoga. TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack takes a closer look at the pedigrees of all five of the runners entered in the stallion-making race. #1 FIERCENESS (c, 4, City of Light--Nonna Bella, by Stay Thirsty) Lifetime Record: Ch. 2yo Colt & MGISW, 10-6-1-1, $4,315,320. O-Repole Stable, Derrick Smith, Michael B....

Camille Pissarro's breeder James Cloney has opened up on the emotion surrounding his most famous graduate's success in Sunday's French Derby and joked that he was pushing even harder than jockey Ryan Moore from his County Kilkenny farm.  Camille Pissarro hails from Cloney's 'blue hen' Entreat, with the Pivotal mare having already produced Group 1 scorer Golden Horde along with further black-type performers Line Of Departure and Exhort. The feat is made all the more remarkable for the fact that Entreat was sourced for just 14,000gns and Cloney is convinced...

Fionn (Twirling Candy) launched an impressive last-to-first rally to win Saturday's GIII Regret S. at Churchill Downs. The favored pacesetter Classic Q (Classic Empire) tired at the top of the stretch as Totally Justified (Justify) took over at the three- sixteenths. Fionn tipped out to the center in the stretch and powered home from there for a career high. Fionn capped a three-race winning streak in the Allen Black Cat LaCombe Memorial S. at Fair Grounds Mar. 8 and rallied for third behind next-out GII Edgewood S. heroine Nitrogen (Medaglia...

Debuted earlier this season at Gulfstream to be a troubled fourth, the well-related Crudo really put his best foot forward at second asking when wiring a maiden special weight at Keeneland by 7 1/4 lengths Apr. 19. Triple Crown nominated for trainer Todd Pletcher, the son of Justify opted for this restricted spot on Preakness Day in Baltimore for his two-turn debut and showed much the same talent from a month ago. The rail-drawn 7-2 second choice jumped clear to the lead but had quick early pressure from race favorite...

It's not just the horses that are called upon. Horsemen, too, must measure up to the challenges of our sport. To many, that now means rescheduling the Triple Crown series. To some of us, however, it means the very opposite. Our community was similarly divided in 2023 by the loss of two horses easing to Grade I success, right in front of the Saratoga grandstand. That trauma prompted many to demand that all dirt tracks be dug up. Others, however, urged persevering with the ancestral core of American racing so...

GISW Sandman (Tapit) has picked up the services of John Velazquez for his anticipated start in Preakness 150, who will replace Jose Ortiz due to another commitment for the contest. Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse promised he'd have a Hall of Fame rider for his grey son of Tapit, and a legend he has procured. Velazquez will be replacing Jose Ortiz, who had the mount in the Derby, as Ortiz has a prior commitment aboard Clever Again (American Pharoah) for trainer Steve Asmussen. The Triple Crown trail has been...

by Kristen Manning & Dane McLeod/TTR AusNZ It was a spectacular affair at the Inglis Chairman's Sale where Group 1 mares stole the show. TTR AusNZ was there to hear what the buyers and sellers had to say about the atmosphere at a special Inglis Riverside evening. At A Glance The Inglis Chairman's Sale of 2025 saw 96 lots catalogued with 77 sold, compared to a smaller catalogue in 2024 with 59 of 88 lots finding new owners. The aggregate was A$54,430,000 compared to last year's A$35,335,000 with the difference...

We all found ourselves in the court of one ruler last weekend, but it would be wrong to treat the kind of transatlantic sovereignty charted by four Classic winners inside 48 hours, either side of the water, as an automatic outcome of greater aggregate expenditure than any program in Turf history. Nobody knows that better than Sheikh Mohammed and his Godolphin team. He has been trying to dovetail his wealth and his passion, both obviously off the charts, for nearly half a century. (He had his first winner at Brighton,...

While his status for the Preakness is still undecided, GI Kentucky Derby hero Sovereignty (Into Mischief) continues to impress his team with how well he has rebounded from his long stretch battle with Journalism (Curlin) last Saturday, but a decision might be around the corner. Since his win in the Spring marquee race, the son of Into Mischief has reportedly done no wrong, and has continued to thrive in his return to routine. Michael Banahan, Godolphin's director of bloodstock, told Steve Byk on his Monday morning satellite radio show that...