Sloppy track favors early speed, primarily because most late runners don’t respond well to slop being kicked up in their faces. Justify didn’t have a drop of slop on him following his very impressive Derby victory. Only problem is, did he go too fast early on. Fractional times were blazingly fast. Still he finished strongly. But that gutsy effort may have taken something out of him for this race. We shall see.
Justify did pick up a heel bruise in the Derby. Kept him in the barn a few days. They say he’s ok now.
Racing analyst Eric Crawford, May 5, 2018
“Justify’s final winning time time of 2:04.20 is the second slowest of the past 28 years.
But the first quarter mile of this Derby was the sixth-fastest opening quarter in Kentucky Derby history.
The opening half mile of 45.77 probably among the dozen fastest.”