The dozen thoroughbred horses that have won the Triple Crown is now a baker’s dozen. Justify won the 150th Belmont Stakes on Saturday in Elmont Park, New York, gaining horseracing immortality as the 13th winner of the Triple Crown.
Justify became the first Triple Crown winner since American Pharoah completed the feat in 2015. Before that, however, a horse had not won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.
At 1.5 miles, the “Test of Champions” is the longest race Justify has ever run, and he was the heavy favorite to win the race at 4/5 odds. Running from the post position on the mixture of sand, dirt and clay that makes up Belmont Park, Justify beat just nine other horses in the field for the win.
https://twitter.com/NBCSports/status/1005584344285577216
It was not the 31-length win that Secretariat had in 1973 when it won a dominant Triple Crown, but jockey Mike Smith became the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown on one of the most impressive 3-year-old horses we’ve seen in recent memory. Justify is the second ever horse to win the Triple Crown undefeated.
HISTORY MADE.
Justify wins the #TripleCrown! pic.twitter.com/npfNwjIgtu
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) June 9, 2018
Justify won the Kentucky Derby on a sloppy track and battled fog in Baltimore for the Preakness, but had only a few clouds in Belmont Park for his triumphant run. Now Justify will enjoy a very happy, and very lucrative, life away from the track. Meanwhile, Gronkowski — the horse named after New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski — finished second.
