Just F Y I: Justify’s Daughter Ready to Light Up Night of the Stars

[Wandering Eyes]

Justify was off to a fast start at stud, leading in several black-type categories as well as in winners and wins with his first crop of runners. But it was in year two when the cream really started to rise to the top. That year, in 2023, he sired two Breeders' Cup winners, Hard to Justify in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Just F Y I in the Juvenile Fillies. The latter brings a talented resume and a special pedigree to this year's Fasig-Tipton November sale when she sells as hip 109 on Monday, Nov. 3.

“We've been blessed to sell some tremendous offerings and her resume really ranks right up there with some of the best horses that have walked through this sales ring,” said Fasig-Tipton President and CEO Boyd Browning. “She is by Justify, who is off to an amazing start as a stallion. Her accomplishments as a two-year-old resulted in her being the champion two-year-old filly, she won the Breeders' Cup very impressively, was just dominant in her two-year-old campaign, and it's really rare to have an opportunity to sell a filly like this.”

“She was the first Justify that I had in the barn and it didn't take long to start to like her,” said her trainer, Bill Mott. “She was a big, tall, rangy filly. She stood with a lot of leg underneath her. She had a lot of scope, however, she was well-balanced. She looked like a horse that would probably be better as a three-year-old-jst her body type and the way she was made. But she came around very early. You know, you wouldn't have looked at her in the very beginning and think that she was going to break her maiden at six-and-a-half furlongs and be as early as she was. But she came right around. It didn't take long to get her to the races.”

Just F Y I made her first start at Saratoga, winning a six-and-a-half furlong maiden by a head. Mott was impressed enough to wheel her right back in the GI Frizette Stakes on Oct. 7, which she won by 3 3/4 lengths.

Justify's Daughter Ready to Light Up Night of the Stars">Justify, and she's in foal to Into Mischief," says Fasig's Boyd Browning. "The opportunity to buy a young champion mare in foal to the leading sire in America doesn't come along very often."">

“She was good enough and quick enough to win at a sprint distance, breaking her maiden,” said Mott. “But the flat mile in the Frizette and the two-turn mile-and-a sixteenth in the Breeders' Cup was right up her alley. I mean that was her. She had enough speed to win a one-turn race and had enough durability to win a two-turn race.”

Her owner, George Krikorian, had reason to be proud on Breeders' Cup Day, having bred the filly from his own multiple-stakes-placed Star Act (Street Cry {Ire}), a daughter of multiple Grade I winner Starrer (Dynaformer), herself a half-sister to multiple Grade I winner Stellar Jayne, from a family studded with black type.

“It all starts with Starrer,” said Krikorian, “who is a multiple Grade I winner. She's the first stakes horse that I ever purchased, and she was found by Donato Lanni, and she was the first stakes horse he ever found for anybody. So that was pretty special. I have probably raced horses 20 times in the Breeders' Cup and it's the first time we won. It's pretty special.”

Said Browning, “You know, I think one of the cool things about Just F Y I is how George has helped develop the family. Her second Dam is Starrer, a Grade I winner that George raced very, very successfully. She's obviously been successful as a broodmare also, producing the dam of Just F Y I who was a stakes performer herself. So it's neat to see somebody who's been involved in the business for many, many years who tries to breed and race at the highest level and achieve success, and George has certainly done that with Starrer and now with Just F Y I.”

John Sikura will offer the champion filly through his Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa consignment.

“Just F Y I, that's a pedigree that George Krikorian has cultivated for more than 20, 25 years,” he said. “He's had great success to breed a Breeders' Cup-winning champion from his own pedigrees. One that you've developed is enormously satisfying. She was undefeated, she's a millionaire, she won the Frizette, she won the Breeders' Cup. She has a classic page; she is by a Triple Crown winner in Justify, and she's in foal to America's leading sire Into Mischief. She's so unique; she has all the qualities, all the attributes that someone would look for in a very special, classic broodmare-big, long, pretty, stands over ground, really, really has it all. She's just a complete, impeccable package.”

Sikura stressed the depth of her page. “At every dam, you have Grade I-winning champions,” he said. “Very few pedigrees seem to reproduce at the highest level of every generation. This is certainly a unique and special pedigree, and as evidenced by the performance of Just F Y I and all of Starrer's esteemed siblings.”

At three, Just F Y I was second in both the GI Ashland and GI Kentucky Oaks. Given a break for the summer and fall, she returned at four this year, but was retired when felled by a fever in the spring, and bred to Into Mischief.

Sums up Browning, “She's four years old. She's a champion. She's by Justify. She's in foal to Into Mischief. You're talking about the perfect opportunity for a leading buyer or breeder who wants to have an addition to their broodmare band at the very highest level or if you want to start a top-level broodmare band, she's the perfect type. The opportunity to buy a young, champion mare in foal to Into Mischief doesn't come along very often.”

Sikura agrees. “Some horses are just born with extraordinary talent,” he said. “The first time she ran, she won, and she got better each start, and to win the Breeders' Cup in her third start, coming off a Grade I win at Belmont, that's very impressive. She's an undefeated two-year-old, hugely accomplished champion. Shortly and succinctly, you could say she was perfection then, and certainly a wonderful, wonderful race filly.”

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