Justify Arrives at WinStar

[Wandering Eyes]

Undefeated Triple Crown winner and ‘TDN Rising Star‘ Justify (Scat Daddy) took the first step in his life after racing on Wednesday, traveling from trainer Bob Baffert’s Southern California base to WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, where he will stay at least until stud plans are confirmed.

The chestnut, campaigned by China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing and WinStar, arrived at WinStar’s stallion complex shortly before 1:30 p.m. after flying into Lexington airport and got right down to the business of settling in to his new abode. WinStar’s David Hanley described what Justify’s transition from racetrack superstar to stud will look like.

“We’re going to give him a week to settle in and then we’re going to open to the public and allow people to come see him,” he said. “We’re really delighted to have him back here.”

“Our plan is to get him in a round pen and handwalk him. He’s pretty fit so we wouldn’t want to turn him out and let him go tearing around. We’ll acclimatize him to the round pen, let him down, handwalk him and eventually move him to a paddock.”

Hanley said colts generally acclimatize quickly to life after the track.

“He’s been walking for a while with Bob, it’s not like he’s been galloping,” Hanley noted. “We’re going to have to cut his feed back to try to let him chill down a little bit. He’s a very smart horse, I think he’ll adjust very quickly. We’ll get him in a round pen and he’s going to be fresh, but once he gets used to that routine I think he’ll settle right down.”

Having been part of the buying team that purchased Justify for $500,000 at Keeneland September two years ago before he came to WinStar to be broken in and prepared for his racing career, Hanley said he feels “blessed and lucky” to have been so intimately involved in Justify’s career.

“He’s just the most incredible horse and it’s unlikely we’ll ever see one like him again in our lifetime,” he said. “To be close to him through all of this and see what he’s gone through in 112 days from Feb. 18 until the Belmont–it’s just been an amazing ride. At every question he’s just stepped up above and beyond what we could have expected.”

Reflecting on the Triple Crown sweep, Hanley said, “What he did in the [GI Kentucky] Derby, going :45 and change, no horse has gone that fast and still won. In the [GI] Preakness, we’ve seen how good a horse Good Magic (Curlin) is, and they went head-to-head for seven furlongs and he still won. Mike Smith, being such a top-class jockey, was saving him a little bit after he had done that and his two works before the [GI] Belmont were just incredible. Everything he’s done has just been jaw-dropping. Coming up to the Belmont, you could tell this horse was just like a beast. You just knew what he was going to do. Just to be close to him and be part of it, we’ve been incredibly blessed and lucky.”

 

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