This Week in Racing: Assessing Justify's Triple Crown chances

This 2018 Preakness Stakes was a fun one. I wasn't sure it would be considering the amount of rain that pelted down on Baltimore throughout the week, but the horses made up for the poor weather with a stirring edition of racing's middle jewel. Justify won again, but at odds of 2-5, this one was anything but easy. 

While similar to the Kentucky Derby in many ways, the Preakness was also different. Similar in that Justify came home the winner again, as the favorite, and over another sloppy track. But this time the challenge from Good Magic was immediate.

It looked like an old fashioned match race as the best two horses went at it over the slop and through the fog. The pace was moderate, but the gauntlet was thrown, and neither of these two top horses were willing to give an inch to his rival. 

Good Magic, the returning 2-year-old champion and Kentucky Derby runner-up, sat on the inside, while the unbeaten wearer of the roses was breathing down his neck on the outside. It was the same scenario which got Classic Empire and Always Dreaming beat in last year's Preakness. It's also what horse racing is all about.

Weather be damned, the two brought their battle on the front end from the gate to the head of the stretch. It was there where Justify demonstrated his slight superiority over his talented rival and began to inch away. Still, it was not easy.

Good Magic continued to battle from the rail, while a pair of longshots began to be bear down on Justify from the outside. With slop flying and fog limiting vision, the Derby winner, and his outstanding rider, Mike Smith, dug down for everything they had to hit the wire a diminishing half-length clear of Bravazo. Tenfold and Good Magic also finished within a length of the winner.

It wasn't pretty. It wasn't fast. It wasn't by a big margin. But the son of Scat Daddy got it done again. For the fifth time in five races, beginning in February, Justify was led into the winner's circle. He knows nothing else. For the first time this walk, though, was one of a tired horse. A horse who had just left it all out on the track. It was also a walk into the winner's circle which brings him to the brink of immortality. 

Now it's on to New York, and what I fully expect to be the toughest test yet for Justify. Will he become only the 13th horse in history to win America's Triple Crown?

Right now, my feeling is no -- not because the Preakness was less than a top effort, as it certainly was, but more because I know how hard this series is to sweep.

To say that Justify has come a long way in a short amount of time would be a gross understatement. No horse with his lack of experience has ever done as much as he has. Ever. It is a testament to him, and also his amazing trainer, and team. Bob Baffert certainly knows what to do with a good horse, and Justify is one of the best he's ever had.

Still, the Belmont Stakes is a different animal. Once around the mammoth oval, the final leg of the Triple Crown is only too happy to play the part of a cruel host. Few horses run in all three legs of the series, and those that do are tested like never before on the far turn of Big Sandy.

Run as far as you ever have before, and then see how you can hold up to a final quarter mile of hell down the long stretch of Belmont Park.

Justify's trainer knows that all too well. Baffert's first two runs at a Triple Crown ended in heartbreak. Silver Charm was close. Real Quiet was closer. Of course, we know that American Pharoah finally got the Hall of Famer over the hump.

As the only Triple Crown winner of the last 39 years, everything fell into place for that one to enter the pantheon. Will the same be said of Justify? It very well may be.

I remain skeptical that he wants every bit of 12 furlongs, and that he will have enough in the tank to hold off an onslaught of fresh horses more than ready to deny him the ultimate prize, but I also remain optimistic.

Justify is a fantastic racehorse. We have all learned that in the past three months, and the Preakness was further proof.