Hard to Justify hard to beat in the Juvenile Fillies Turf (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
A Breeders’ Cup Double for Stallion Justify
Breeders’ Cup Press Release
ARCADIA, Calif.— Wise Racing LLC’s Hard to Justify ($20.20) swept to the lead at midstretch and then outdueled favorites Porta Fortuna (IRE) and She Feels Pretty through the final sixteenth of a mile to post a head victory in the 16th running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) for 2-year-olds Friday afternoon at Santa Anita.
Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Flavien Prat, Hard to Justify completed the mile over a firm turf course in 1:34.42. It is the 17th Breeders’ Cup victory for Brown and sixth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. For Prat, it is his fifth Breeders’ Cup victory and first in this race.
Brown’s other victories in the race came with Maram (2008), Lady Eli (2014), New Money Honey (2016), Rushing Fall (2017) and Newspaperofrecord (IRE) (2018).
Longshot Dreamfyre set the pace with Hard to Justify tracking just behind her. They ran 1-2 until the stretch when Hard to Justify moved to the fore with Porta Fortuna to her inside and She Feels Pretty to her outside while Austere made a bold bid along the rail. However, in the final yards, Hard to Justify had enough of a cushion to claim the victory.
The victory was worth $520,000 sand increased Hard to Justify’s earnings to $687,750 as she remained perfect in three starts. She is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Justify out of the Quality Road mare Instant Reflex.
Stakes Quotes:
Winning Trainer Chad Brown, Hard to Justify – “She’s a very progressive horse who has proven she can overcome trouble. She’s really very advanced for her age, mentally, and had that physical toughness to overcome a brutal trip in her first race, making a couple different runs during the race to get up. In her second race (G2 Miss Grillo), she was forward and was always there for Flavien (Prat). He was excited to ride her here and liked her chances in the race. When we drew wide, it was very disappointing. I looked at the race form and spoke to Flavien and just said that I think she’s one of the only three fillies, barring some European form that I can’t see, from the American horses who is good enough to win. I don’t mind using some fuel early to clear and she did that and hit a 47 and change half. There was mild concern at the three-eighths marker when they started to stack up outside of her. I thought maybe that post would do her in, but I knew she had some fight in her. It’s just a matter of when he wanted to use that last bit of energy that she would have. Sure enough, she had plenty; more than I thought.”
Winning Jockey Flavien Prat, Hard to Justify – “Good trip. She jumped well out of the gate. I was able to sit right off the pace. She was all game.”
Trainer Donnacha O’Brien, second with Porta Fortuna (IRE) – “She’s ran a great race. Oisin (Murphy) had her in a good position throughout so there’s no excuses. She put her head down and tried her heart out so although we’ve not quite got there I’m delighted. She had a good week’s training going into the race so I was hopeful but unfortunately we just weren’t quite good enough on the day.”
Jockey Oisin Murphy, second with Porta Fortuna (IRE) – “She’s an extremely game filly who ran a massive race. She tries so hard so we can’t be too disappointed. We had a good enough run around throughout and we got a run towards the rail up the stretch, unfortunately we couldn’t quite catch the winner.”
Trainer Cherie DeVaux, third with She Feels Pretty – “She stumbled coming out of the gate and Johnny (jockey Velazquez) thought that cost her a better position. She only lost by a half-length and she was wide the whole race. Have to think that didn’t help her, but she ran really well and I’m really proud of that. She had to face some adversity for the first time. She really tried to run that other horse down but it was too much, too late.”
Jockey John Velazquez, third with She Feels Pretty – “It was not the ideal trip. I got caught up wide all the way around. My horse was running, but I had to go around those two horses on the turn and I thought she’s going to have to be a champion to get there, and the other one had a little bit left, and that was the difference right there. I would have loved to have switched spots with the winner and save all that the ground. That’s racing.”
