Meet the 13th Horse to Win the Triple Crown

Justify gets it done in the Belmont Stakes
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 9, 2018 6:21 PM CDT
Meet the 13th Horse to Win the Triple Crown
Justify (1), with jockey Mike Smith up, crosses the finish line ahead of Gronkowski (6), with jockey Jose Ortiz up, to win the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race and the Triple Crown.   (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Justify led all the way to win the Belmont Stakes by 1¾ lengths and become horse racing's 13th Triple Crown champion and second in four years. The chestnut colt is the second undefeated colt to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont, improving to 6-0 in a racing career that began on Feb. 18, per the AP. Seattle Slew was unbeaten when he won the Triple Crown in 1977.

Sent off as the 4-5 favorite, Justify went to the lead out of the starting gate and led nine rivals around the track's sweeping turns on Saturday. He's the first Triple Crown winner to face that many rivals in the 1½-mile Belmont. Bob Baffert became the second trainer to win the Triple Crown twice. He did so with American Pharoah in 2015, ending a 37-year drought of Triple Crown winners. At 52, Mike Smith is the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown. (More Triple Crown stories.)

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