Washington (AFP) – Kentucky Derby winner Justify captured the Preakness Stakes at fog-shrouded Pimlico on Saturday, staying on course to become the 13th horse to sweep US flat racing’s Triple Crown.
Pressed all the way by Derby runner-up Good Magic, the Bob Baffert-trained Justify, ridden by Mike Smith, surged in the stretch to seize the victory ahead of the late-charging Bravazo.
Tenfold was third as Good Magic faded to fourth.
Unbeaten in five starts, Justify can complete the coveted Triple Crown sweep at the Belmont Stakes on June 9.
“It was a nail-biter,” said Baffert, whose seventh Preakness victory saw him tie 19th-century horseman R. Wyndham Walden for the all-time record.
Baffert also matched D. Wayne Lukas’s record of 14 victories in the three Triple Crown races.
It was Baffert who saddled American Pharoah in 2015 when the three-year-old became the first horse in 37 years to complete the coveted treble.
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