Bob Baffert called American Pharoah his “first love,” but the Hall of Fame trainer was brought to tears again Saturday by his latest pride and joy.
Justify dashed into history by winning the 150th Belmont Stakes, joining American Pharoah in the laurels of Triple Crown winners. Both were trained by Baffert — just the second man in history to train two horses that captured the sport’s pinnacle — and the comparisons immediately began.
“They’re two different types,” Baffert said diplomatically, shortly after his latest win. “It’s like comparing your kids, which one is faster.”
Baffert called the unbeaten Justify “one of the all-time great horses,” and after experiencing his share of heartbreaks at Belmont, he didn’t have to pick between the two who won it all. History will forever link them as equals.
“I don’t have to really compare them because if they make this wall, that’s all you need to say,” Baffert said in a packed film room beneath the track, pointing to the walls where pictures of legends such as Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed were hanging.
Justify’s jockey Mike Smith had no doubt who was better.
“I think he’s the greatest of all time. I just won the Triple Crown, man, he’s my champion,” Smith said of Justify while beaming — but at least Baffert was breathing a little easier the second time around.
“With American Pharoah, it just looked like it wasn’t going to happen,” Baffert said of the horse that broke the 37-year Triple Crown drought in 2015. “I just felt more pressure because I felt — look, the Lord has given me another crack at it. … When he finally did it, I was like everybody else, I was just in awe of it.”
This time, Baffert knew Justify could do it, even though he hadn’t raced as a 2-year-old and only began racing in February. He had a presence about him that the 65-year-old trainer saw at every turn, separating him from Baffert’s first love.
“He’s a walk-on,” Baffert said of Justify. “He just came on there and he broke every curse there was. It was meant to be. I’ll never forget, I’ve never had a horse when I unloaded him the other day, those horses in that barn went nuts when they saw him. I’ve never seen anything like that. They just knew his presence.”
