Jusitfy won the 2018 Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Justify is trained by Bob Baffert and was ridden by Mike Smith. He finished in 2:04.02 in what was the wettest Kentucky Derby in the history of the race.

Bob Baffert got his fifth victory in the Kentucky Derby. Justify, which remained the 3-1 betting pick less than an hour before the 144th Derby despite the rain throughout the day and the track downgraded to sloppy, was the runaway choice on social media with 14,700 mentions, according to Talkwalker.

Justify didn't race as a 2-year-old. They disproved an old jinx: No horse since Apollo in 1882 has won without racing as a juvenile.

Kentucky Derby 2018 will be remembered for at least one reason – it was the wettest race day ever recorded.

The National Weather Service recorded 2.61 inches of rain at Louisville International Airport on Saturday, as of 4:30 p.m. ET. That eclipsed the previous record of 2.31 inches, recorded on May 11, 1918. </s> LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Race favorite Justify, ridden by Mike Smith, finished first in the 144th Kentucky Derby at Louisville’s Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Justify is trained by Bob Baffert, who has four previous Derby wins.

The race was the wettest in the event’s history as more than 2.8 inches of rain fell Saturday.

The next race in the Triple Crown series is May 19 — the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York, is June 9 at Belmont Park. </s> (CNN) — Race favorite Justify, ridden by Mike Smith, won the 144th Kentucky Derby on a sloppy track at Louisville’s Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Justify is trained by Bob Baffert, who now has five Derby wins.

Good Magic finished second, just ahead of Audible.

The race was the wettest in the event’s history as more than 2.8 inches of rain fell Saturday.

Justify broke from the No. 7 post well, ran to the front with Promises Fulfilled and pulled away just as the horses passed the 3/4 mile marker in the 1-1/4 mile race.

The next race in the Triple Crown series is May 19 — the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York, is June 9 at Belmont Park. </s> Mike Smith rides Justify to victory during the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Louisville, Ky. Associated Press/Kiichiro Sato

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Justify splashed through the slop to win the Kentucky Derby by 2½ lengths on Saturday, becoming the first colt in 136 years to wear the roses after not racing as a 2-year-old.

The colt that began his racing career in February improved to 4-0 and gave Bob Baffert his fifth Derby victory. That snapped a tie and left the 65-year-old trainer trailing only Ben Jones with six.

Mike Smith earned his second Derby victory. The 52-year-old jockey crossed the finish line at Churchill Downs with only a few specks of mud on his white and green silks in the rainiest Derby in the race's 144-year history.

Justify, the 5-2 favorite in the field of 20, ran 1¼ miles in 2:04.20.

Good Magic finished second and Audible was another head back in third. </s> After a day of steady rain on Churchill Downs, it was Justify who managed to cross the finish line first in the mud.

Justify brought home Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith a second Derby victory, on top of his and trainer Bob Baffert's $2 million prize. Bafftert also seals his fifth Derby win.

Despite the unpredictable conditions, history predicted the result — it's sixth consecutive Derby that a favorite has won.

Almost 3 inches of rain made for sloppy conditions at the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby.

Entering the race, Justify was the favorite, with 5-2 odds, followed by Mendelssohn, 6-1, and My Boy Jack at 6-1.

Mendelssohn, aiming to claim the first Derby win for a Europe-hailing horse, finished last, beaten by 73¼ lengths.

Superstitious fans had been dreading the Apollo Curse. According to Sports Illustrated, no horse has won the race without starting as a 2-year-old since 1882 — when Apollo won the Kentucky Derby by defeating 4-5 favorite Runnymede.

Justify, with the best odds, and Magnum Moon, closing with 13-1, had been the only candidates in the field eligible to break the 136-year-old curse. </s> First the rain, then the fog and finally the greatness.

Hooked in a nose-to-nose duel all the way around the track with his primary rival Good Magic, Kentucky Derby winner Justify held on to win the 143rd Preakness on Saturday and will head to the Belmont Stakes on June 9 with a chance to become horse racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner.

Unlike his romp through the Derby, Justify had to gut this one out in the slop, finally putting away from Good Magic in deep stretch but also having to hold off Bravazo, who charged late but came up a neck short. Tenfold was a fast-closing third.

Trainer Bob Baffert, who also trained 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, won his 14th classic race, tying D. Wayne Lukas for most all-time.

Justify #7 ridden by jockey Mike Smith wins the 143rd running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 19, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland.

All week, the race shaped up as a coronation for Justify, who won the Kentucky Derby by a convincing 2 1/2 lengths and drew immediate comparisons to the likes of American Pharoah and Seattle Slew, the only horse to win the Triple Crown with an undefeated record.

That Justify, a unique physical specimen with blazing early speed, was able to win the Derby at all off just three career races in 77 days, was not only an impressive training feat by Baffert but a testament to the horse’s immense talent.

And for many bettors, who made Justify a massive 2-to-5 favorite at post time, there was an air of expectation that Justify would likely duplicate that effort in the Preakness against a smaller field and head to Belmont with a chance to win the Triple Crown, just as Baffert’s four previous Kentucky Derby winners had done.

But there were two big questions Justify had to answer at Pimlico. The first was whether a heel bruise that surfaced after the Derby was indeed a non-issue, as Baffert consistently maintained, or perhaps that kind of small physical problem that gets magnified under the grueling Triple Crown schedule. The second issue was whether Justify’s form might simply regress running for the fifth time in a 91-day span, a fairly heavy workload for horses in the modern era.

Those possibilities inspired trainer Chad Brown to give Good Magic another chance after he ran a solid second in the Derby and for D. Wayne Lukas to believe Bravazo, after a troubled sixth in Louisville, could possibly serve as a spoiler in a smaller field. And, as always, the Preakness attracted some Triple Crown newcomers like Quip and Tenfold to see how they stacked up against a Derby winner.

Justify #7 ridden by jockey Mike Smith wins the 143rd running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 19, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Much like the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, the Preakness was a dripping wet mess. A seemingly never-ending storm front dumped rain over the area for five straight days, which are particularly challenging conditions at a place like Pimlico, which is 143 years old and now the focus of a fight between its owners and the state of Maryland about whether the race will be moved to a more modern track just south of Baltimore or whether the local government will step up and spend hundreds of millions to rebuild Pimlico.

“We’ve got leaks everywhere, people sitting at tables and tiles falling out,” said Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer for the Stronach Group, which owns the track. “It’s a struggle like that because it’s important to us that the customer has a great experience, and it’s hard to do that in this facility.”

Still, the track said 134,487 people showed up Saturday, many of whom seemed to be enjoying the mosh pit of mud and modern music emanating from the infield without any regard for the racing conditions, which were awful.

The track was so wet, Pimlico was forced to move five of the six scheduled grass races Saturday to dirt and worked around-the-clock in the days leading up to the Preakness to drain water off the course so that it wouldn’t pool along the rail. Then, when the rain finally lifted on Saturday afternoon, it left a heavy fog in its place that made it practically impossible for fans to see the backstretch.

When the horses finally emerged into view, Justify had been through a full mile of a head-to-head duel with Good Magic, a battle that clearly tired both horses. Still, Justify had enough to win -- and now stands just 1 1/2 miles away from history. </s> BALTIMORE—The day looked much the same. There were wastebaskets catching rainwater seeping through the ceiling, cardboard and wood chips and carpets meant to soak up days of dampness at Pimlico Race Course. The track resembled peanut butter, not dirt, and the fog rolled in as if on cue, producing a thick white curtain as the horses loaded the gate, leaving the race caller to rely on television monitors, rather than what he could see with his own eyes. The fans, in rain boots and parkas, were not deterred by the dreadful conditions: They wanted to witness the second act of what they hoped would soon become horse racing lore.

This was not 2015, when the Bob Baffert-trained American Pharoah went to the lead of the Preakness Stakes and stayed there, winning by seven lengths to capture the second jewel of the Triple Crown in a storybook run that culminated in his becoming the first winner in 37 years. On Saturday, it was Justify, also trained by Baffert, that went to the lead, but he was soon challenged by Good Magic, so much so that their battle resembled a match race going into the stretch. But Justify shook free, then hung on to defeat Bravazo by a half-length in the 143rd Preakness and set up a shot at the Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes in New York in three weeks. “Not even the fog could stop him,” the race caller, Larry Collmus, exclaimed as Justify crossed the finish line for his fifth victory in five tries and his third on a wet track.

Tenfold finished third, while Good Magic faded to fourth. “It was like we had our own private match race and someone had to give — I’m just glad it wasn’t us,” said Baffert, who added that the exhilarating victory took more out of him than it probably did out of Justify, with Mike Smith aboard. “I’m just glad that everyone got to see a great horse race.” Afterward, Smith acknowledged that Justify, the colt with the perfect record in often imperfect conditions, was a little tired. “A good kind of tired,” he said. In five tries, Baffert has never lost the Preakness with a Derby winner. In fact, Justify’s victory tied him with R. Wyndham Walden, who won seven editions in the 1800s, including five straight, for the most Preakness wins. He also earned a record 14th victory in a Triple Crown race. A race earlier, a Baffert-trained horse ridden by Smith, Ax Man, won by 6 3/4 lengths, perhaps foretelling what was about to happen next. There was no question that Justify could handle the slop — he made it look easy amid a steady and driving rain on the first Saturday in May, when he became the first horse since 1882 to win the Kentucky Derby without having competed as a 2-year-old.

And Saturday’s conditions appeared just right for a repeat performance. “We probably cleaned out, I think, the entire state in terms of rain boots and ponchos,” said Belinda Stronach, chairwoman and president of the Stronach Group, which owns Pimlico. Still, Justify was no sure thing. This is horse racing, which has a way of spoiling even the rowdiest of parties.

The morning after the Derby, Baffert brought Justify out of his barn for a victory lap, but the horse appeared agitated and unable to put much weight on his left hind leg. Baffert did not notice anything wrong at the time, but when videos of the appearance were posted on social media, speculation swirled that Justify might be lame. Baffert later said that Justify was dealing with “scratches,” a skin irritation that is common among horses that have encountered wet surfaces. But when Kentucky Horse Racing Commission veterinarians examined Justify two days later, they found no sign of a rash, instead saying he had a bruised heel. After a few more days of rest and relaxation, Justify returned to the track looking like his old self. Before he left Kentucky for Baltimore, he was re-shod and an adhesive reinforcement was placed on his left hind hoof. Baffert said he was confident that Justify was ready. Baffert made good on his promise Saturday, as Justify looked no worse for wear while fending off his competition in front of an announced crowd of 134,487, more than the 131,680 who watched American Pharoah. Justify breathes the same air as American Pharoah, Baffert boasted all week. Afterward, he felt the same. “Unbelievable,” Baffert kept repeating. On a day that began with a royal wedding, Justify sure appeared worthy of a Triple Crown coronation in three weeks’ time. All that is left is one more race and one more victory to land him among the titans of the sport of kings. </s> ELMONT, N.Y. – It was Justify’s moment, after all.

In a withering display of power and durability, the late-blooming colt who didn’t race as a 2-year-old proved Saturday he couldn’t be worn out as a 3-year-old, thundering to victory in the Belmont Stakes to claim a place in history as the sport’s 13th Triple Crown champion.

After a 37-year drought in which the feat seemed impossible, Justify became the second horse in four years to achieve it, schooled, like his 2015 predecessor American Pharoah, by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.

Justify was bred in Kentucky by Langley, B.C.-based breeder John Gunther, who splits his time between B.C. and Kentucky.

Before Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, which Justify won by 1 3/4 lengths over surprise second-place finisher Gronkowski, the massive chestnut colt with the white blaze had won the Kentucky Derby by a 2 1/2-length margin, becoming the first since Apollo in 1882 to win the classic without running as a 2-year-old. Two weeks later, Justify weathered torrential rain and a blanket of fog to win the Preakness Stakes, setting himself up for the Triple Crown bid.

All that remained was to prove that he had the toughness and resolve to conquer the longest, most grueling leg of the Triple Crown – the Belmont Stakes. On Saturday, Justify did just that before a rapturous crowd of 90,327, leading wire-to-wire to cover the 1 1/2-mile distance in 2:28.18 with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith aboard. And he did it in the fading moments of a sun-splashed afternoon with a show of versatility, mastering a dry, fast track that represented a far different test than the slop he’d slogged through at Churchill Downs and Pimlico Race Course.

Justify’s dominance in a 10-horse field that included Preakness runner-up Bravazo and Derby horses Hofburg (who finished third), Vino Rosso and Free Drop Billy moved Baffert to tears afterward, as his thoughts turned to his late parents and friends he has lost, convinced they’ve somehow been helping him these last years.

With Saturday’s triumph, Baffert, 65, became only the second trainer to win two Triple Crowns (along with the late James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, whose triumphs came in 1930 and ’35, with Gallant Fox and Omaha, respectively). He also pulled ahead of longtime friend and rival trainer Wayne Lukas, 82, to claim a record 15 wins in Triple Crown races (five Kentucky Derbys, seven Preakness Stakes and three Belmont Stakes). But Baffert was far more interested afterward in speaking about how fitting and satisfying it felt to help Justify place his name alongside champions such as Secretariat, who’d claimed his Triple Crown 45 years to the day earlier, winning the Belmont by a record 31 lengths, in a record 2:24.

“The great ones, they just find another gear,” Baffert said of Justify, who improved to 6-0 and joined Seattle Slew as the only horse to claim the Triple Crown with an unbeaten record. “He is a magnificent animal.”

Smith, 52, the oldest jockey to win a Triple Crown, gave all credit to Justify, noting that all he had done was “let a good horse be a good horse.”

“This horse ran a tremendous race,” Smith said. “He is so gifted. He is sent from heaven, I tell you.”

Like “Big Red,” as Secretariat was lovingly called, Justify (an even bigger “Big Red,” at 16.3 hands and 1,380 pounds, compared to a typical 1,100-pound thoroughbred), drew the No. 1 post. While it served Secretariat well, it posed a concern for Baffert, who worried his muscular colt might get pinned against the rail if he didn’t break well.

The first horse to load in the gate, Justify stayed so still and steady as the other nine followed suit that Smith worried for a moment that he might not break at all. But he shot out with a fury, took a 1 1/2-length lead at the quarter pole and never let a challenger get closer than that.

Justify wore different silks than he sported in the Derby under a previous agreement among his four-way ownership group, swapping Winstar Farm’s white and green for China Horse Club International’s red with yellow stars. Baffert had joked earlier in the week that, with luck, the jockeys who had their sights set on beating Justify might get confused by the change.

No chance. Between his imposing size and glistening chestnut coat, Justify is difficult to overlook, particularly with his muscular hind legs propelling him forward.

Behind him horses diced for position. The lightly regarded Gronkowski, dead last through the first half-mile, fittingly played the role of lead disrupter. With real-life New England Patriot tight end Rob Gronkowski screaming in the stands, his namesake colt surged to third at the 1 ¼-mile mark then unseated Vino Rosso for second as the field turned for home.

Smith, with two previous Belmont Stakes victories to his credit, kept it simple, sensing the power in the competitor beneath him. He took his hand away to give Justify a periodic breath, then gave him a squeeze when he wanted more.

“He listens to you–to everything I do,” Smith said afterward.

And on they thundered, with the front-running jockey keeping the red-and-yellow silks clean as the other horses got caked in dirt.

“Once they turned toward home, I felt at that point he’d hold anybody off who was coming,” Smith said.

In the winner’s circle afterward, the deafening cheers and applause weren’t simply a reward; they were vindication.

When skeptics questioned his audacious ambitions for the late-developing colt, Baffert said Justify was talented enough to win the Kentucky Derby with minimal experience. And when they questioned Justify’s grueling workload – five races in a three-month span, with the Belmont his sixth in less than four months – Baffert said his horse was tough enough to handle it.

On this afternoon, they had each other’s backs. Horse racing’s defiant ones proved they were hostage to no timetable but their own. </s> Justify won the 144th Kentucky Derby Saturday, breaking a 1882 curse against thoroughbreds that did not race at age 2.

The chestnut colt with a white blaze on his face was the favorite with 3-1 odds in the field of 20 horses. Good Magic came in second, with Audible pulling in a close third.

Justify, who came into Louisville's Churchill Downs undefeated, is the first horse that didn't race as a 2-year-old to win "The Run for the Roses" since Apollo won in 1882. The Kentucky Derby is a Grade 1 stakes race for 3-year-old thoroughbreds.

He is also the fifth thoroughbred trained by Bob Baffert to win the Kentucky Derby. Baffert saddled Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015 as well as Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet in 1998, and War Emblem in 2002.

Saturday's race was the first away from California's Santa Anita Park for Justify. He earned his spot in the Kentucky Derby by beating out Bolt d'Oro in the Santa Anita Derby last month. </s> LOUISVILLE — The Kentucky Derby is always the hardest race of the year to handicap because there are factors that come into play on Derby Day that simply aren’t present any other time these young horses will step onto the track.

From seeing and hearing a well-lubricated crowd of more than 100,000 humans to the inherent chaos of navigating a race with 19 other horses, there is nothing normal about the experience. Some are impervious to the sensory stress and run their race. But many horses, even some who went on to become champions, encounter enough difficulty to run poorly that day — or, in the case of a horse last year named Thunder Snow — refuse to run at all.

There’s really no way to know.

“The best horse doesn’t always win the Derby,” Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith said. “Matter of fact, it seldom does.”

From a talent perspective, Smith may very well be on the best horse this year in Justify, a physical specimen whose athleticism stands out even among other terrific-looking horses.

More: Can Derby favorite justify the hype?

More: Mike Smith is the jockey everyone wants in big races

More: More Derby picks from the experts

Moreover, Justify is 3-for-3 in his career, was visually impressive in winning the Santa Anita Derby, has looked comfortable galloping over the Churchill Downs track and is trained by four-time Derby winner Bob Baffert. Justify is the deserving favorite, and he may well prove Saturday evening that he’s a potential superstar who can sweep the Triple Crown.

But from a handicapping perspective, Justify is far from bulletproof. This is a horse that made his racetrack debut a mere 11 weeks ago, and as authoritative as Justify’s three wins have been, they’ve come against small fields in California where he was allowed to go to the front unchallenged and cruise along at a comfortable pace. That won’t happen on Saturday in a rough-and-tumble Derby, and everything about the history of the race tells me such an inexperienced animal is a terrible bet at 5/2 or 3/1, even if he may turn out eventually to be a great horse.

Many bettors who come to the same conclusion on Justify will likely filter toward Mendelssohn, the regally-bred European who won the UAE Derby by 18 1/2 lengths, Florida Derby winner Audible or Arkansas Derby winner Magnum Moon, who is 4-for-4 in his career.

But no horse in the field has a better combination of class, experience and running style than Good Magic, who comes into the 144th Kentucky Derby as one of the least-respected 2-year-old champions in recent memory.

Good Magic, who hails from the red-hot barn of New York-based trainer Chad Brown, was somehow made 12-1 on the morning line even though he’s coming off an impressive performance in the Blue Grass Stakes a month ago at Keeneland and won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November, exploding from just off the pace to win by 4 1/2 lengths.

In most years, a horse that won those two races would be among the favorites. Instead, Good Magic has been largely overlooked. Why?

It may trace back to the early spring, when Brown decided to give Good Magic a vacation after the Breeders’ Cup, hoping to have a fresh horse for the classics. But when he returned to the races off a four-month layoff, he was an uninspiring third in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, showing little finishing kick.

Though Good Magic redeemed himself in the Blue Grass, it didn’t attract one of the stronger fields among the prep races. So the question handicappers must consider is this: Did Good Magic simply need the race in the Fountain of Youth to set him on an upward trajectory that will culminate with the best race of his career in the Kentucky Derby, or did he simply look good against bad horses at Keeneland?

After seeing him in person at Churchill, where his gallops have been strong but full of controlled energy, I’m going to guess it’s the former.

“He couldn’t be doing any better,” Brown said.

Part of the problem with the Derby is that it’s easy to overthink things as a handicapper. But with Good Magic, you get a horse that fits the profile of many Derby winners: He won a big race at 2, improved from his first to his second start at 3, will sit just off the lead where he can pounce coming around the far turn and comes from a trainer who tasted his first Triple Crown success in last year’s Preakness with Cloud Computing.

Though I’ll include Justify, Mendelssohn and Audible in trifectas and superfectas, the final order of finish will be:

1. Good Magic (No. 6): Brown, who is already a star at age 39, gets his first Derby win.

2. Hofburg (No. 9): The Juddmonte Farms homebred finished a good second in the Florida Derby, which was just his third career start. Trainer Bill Mott is a master, and he wouldn’t throw such an inexperienced horse in the Derby unless he felt like he had a good shot.

3. Enticed (No. 12): As a 2-year-old, he won the Kentucky Jockey Club stakes at Churchill Downs, so he likes the track. Ran well in the New York preps.

4. My Boy Jack (No. 10): You always want to include at least one closer on your ticket to get a piece of it if the early pace is suicidal. He may not be good enough to win, but he’ll be running fast late.
Pre-race favorite Justify wins the Kentucky Derby, becoming the first horse since 1882 to win the race while unraced as a two-year-old. The race was run under the wettest conditions in its history; by post time, more than 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) of rain had fallen on race day, breaking a record that had lasted since 1918.