Justify made history at the Belmont Stakes, becoming just the 13th horse to win the Triple Crown. After a thrilling spring season, horse racing bettors are wondering what’s next for Bob Baffert’s latest champion?
There are some options on the board, and while Baffert and his camp won’t commit to any races just yet – perhaps worried they will tarnish Justify’s legacy or stud price tag – he would undoubtedly be a huge favorite in these potential showings.
Here are the next online horse race betting stages for the latest Triple Crown champ:
Haskell Invitational
Monmouth Park could be Justify’s next destination. The Haskell Invitational is the next big stakes race on the board, scheduled for July 31 and boasting a purse of $1 million – plus a likely incentive for Winstar Farm. Although, at this point, money isn’t much of a motivating factor for Baffert and the horse’s owners.
The 1 1/8-mile event is still ironing out the field, but along with the potential presence of the Triple Crown winner, notable contenders like Good Magic and Audible are rumored to take a swing at that big-money payday.
American Pharoah, the last Triple Crown champ in 2015, ran and won the Haskell Invitational. He was patient through most of the race then exploded out of the final turn and buried the field down the stretch for a comfortable win.
Baffert has an excellent track record at the Haskell, with eight career wins as a trainer, including American Pharoah. It seems like a safe race when compared to some of the other options below.
Travers Stakes
When a race boasts a nickname like “The Graveyard of Champions”, you tread lightly with your Triple Crown winner. Not even American Pharoah could escape the Travers with his resume intact, getting pushed hard by Frosted throughout the race and opening up the door for Keen Ice to steal the win - and the thunder - at Saratoga.
This year’s Travers takes place on August 25 in upstate New York. The 1 ¼-mile race has been won by a Kentucky Derby champ just three times in the past 76 years: Hero (1993), Thunder Gulch (1995) and Street Sense (2007). Before that, Shut Out took both the Derby and the Travers titles way back in 1942.
The purse for the Travers Stakes is a cool $1.25 million and Justify will likely have a good chunk of change thrown at him just to show up. If you think this horse is destined to fall victim to history remember he snapped the “Curse of Apollo” becoming the first Kentucky Derby winner not to race as a 2-year-old since Apollo in 1882. Jeez, measured up against that long-running curse, “The Graveyard of Champions” seems like a walk in the park.
Breeder’s Cup Classic
Horse racing’s Grand Slam awaits Justify should he make the trip to Churchill Downs in early November. It would seem only fitting that one of the greatest three-year-old seasons in horse racing history close out where it all started.
The Breeder’s Cup Classic is a unique race, however, not just open to the top three-year-olds but the very elite in all of horse racing. The 1 ¼-mile test is handing out $6 million in purse winnings and oddsmakers have Justify pegged as the early favorite at 5/2 odds. Behind him on the board are notables like West Coast at 7/1 and Collected at 12/1.
American Pharoah bounced back from his loss at the Travers Stakes and found his way into the Winner’s Circle in the Classic back in 2015, taking down some notables at Keenland with a wire-to-wire run that poured it on down the stretch. That was the middle of three straight Breeder’s Cup Classic champs for Baffert (2014, 2015, 2016), who missed out on a fourth straight title in 2017.
