Sky-High Praise for Justify Reflected in Mares Bred

A few eyebrows were raised when Aidan O'Brien described Justify as potentially "the best ever" sire in an interview in Good Morning Bloodstock last year—not long after he had sent out Warm Heart (IRE), Galileo's 99th top-level winner, to score in the 2024 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park with the bravery that was a trademark of her father's output. "Justify is definitely the most different stallion," the master of Ballydoyle said about the new apple of his eye. "He's different from any other Thoroughbred you've seen. He's a big, muscly, powerful horse. It beggars belief that he was able to stretch out and win a Belmont. "His stock stood out the moment they arrived. They're big, rangy horses with huge strides, all of them genuine and with good wind. We had to wait and see whether they had the class, but as soon as they started racing, it all came out. "If there's any sire in the world who demonstrated class, it was him in his last three months of racing. Nobody could have asked him to do more than what he did. One follows another like night follows day, and his progeny are the same. They go forward, they cruise, and they quicken. It's so exciting. "It's unbelievable. Justify is a big sprinter, like a Quarter Horse, who was able to win over a mile and a half. Where on earth does that come from? I think it'll be unbelievable what his progeny are going to do. I don't think we've seen anything like what's going to happen yet." "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?" was probably some of my more cynical readers' response to O'Brien's paean of praise for the son of Scat Daddy. "After all, it's in the job description to talk up the Coolmore stallions." I must confess that I did think myself that O'Brien might have got a little carried away with the rhapsodizing—not out of his own self-interest, but because of recency bias—with the sire having just supplied the 2023 European champion 2-year-old colt and filly, City of Troy and Opera Singer, both of whom were bred in Kentucky but housed at Ballydoyle. But, as time goes by, O'Brien is looking more and more justified, pardon the pun, in placing the 2018 American Triple Crown laureate on such a high pedestal. Whether Justify turns out to be "the best ever" stallion is debatable, but the trainer was right: there is something other-worldly about him (we learned from Coolmore's staff on the ground back in February that he weighs 700 kilos—about 1,543 pounds—a full 50 kilos more than any horse who has stood at the operation's Irish base) and he has been passing on his exceptional gifts to his offspring with regularity. City of Troy went on to win the Epsom Derby (G1), Eclipse Stakes (G1), and Juddmonte International Stakes (G1) to be named joint world champion, and is serving his first book of mares at Coolmore in Ireland. Opera Singer overcame an interrupted spring to take the Nassau Stakes (G1) at Goodwood; and the Christopher Head-trained Ramatuelle atoned for her One Thousand Guineas (G1) near-miss by bolting up in the Prix de la Foret (G1). Now, thanks to Ruling Court's game victory in the Two Thousand Guineas (G1) at Newmarket May 3, Justify has his eighth group/grade 1 winner, the fifth trained in Europe, from four crops of racing age. The colt, who made a record amount for a breeze-up horse in Europe when sold by Norman and Janet Williamson's Oak Tree Farm to Godolphin for €2.3 million (US$2,477,404) at the Arqana May Breeze Up Sale in Deauville last May, was bred in Kentucky by Nursery Place, Manfuso, and Wilhite out of the grade 3-placed High Chaparral mare Inchargeofme (GB). Ruling Court is an important horse for the direction of breeding in Europe as, all being well, he will become a first stallion son of Justify for Godolphin's breeding arm of Darley, presumably in Britain or Ireland. It is, dare I say, no bad thing to see this particular branch of the Scat Daddy sire line expand when it has shown itself to be more capable of delivering progressive and versatile horses than some others. Momentum Growing Success should breed success for Justify. His 2-year-olds were conceived at a fee of $100,000 but in his fourth season at stud, before he had proven himself, and so while there are plenty of well-bred members of that crop, it won't have quite the same strength in depth as other generations, in terms of pedigree. But with City of Troy and company driving demand for the sire's stock on the track last year, those 2-year-olds still sold for an average of $326,255 and median of $250,000 as yearlings last year, up from an average of $287,324 and steady with the median of $250,000 in 2023. Seven of those Justify juveniles are set to be offered at the Arqana Breeze Up Sale, the source of Ruling Court, May 10. Buyers are creatures of habit, so expect any of those lots who please in their breeze to make a small fortune. Justify's yearlings of 2024 were also conceived at a fee of $100,000 after he showed significant promise with his first 2-year-olds without setting the world alight (no harm in that, as the current "best ever" sire Galileo showed). Only 13 came up for auction as foals last year, and they sold for an average of around $285,669 and median of $248,696: a decent mark-up on the cost of production, but European interest in the sire redoubled by Ruling Court might see many vendors of his yearlings this year make even bigger profits. Justify's book really went blockbuster last year, after a bumper set of results in his sophomore season in 2023. Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) hero Arabian Lion (now standing at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington), Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1) winner Aspen Grove (IRE), and Blue Grass Stakes (G1) and H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1) runner-up Verifying (standing at Pleasant Acres Stallions in Florida) emerged from his first crop, while four group/grade 1-winning 2-year-olds came out of his second generation: City of Troy and Opera Singer in Europe, and Hard to Justify and Just F Y I at the 2023 Breeders' Cup meeting at Del Mar. Justify-Galileo Cross Leads Way Equineline reports that Justify covered 263 mares to Northern Hemisphere time at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky last year. They included 57 daughters of Galileo, to replicate the cross that produced City of Troy. Among them were Coolmore's own top-flight winners Alice Springs (IRE), Clemmie (IRE), Empress Josephine (IRE), Forever Together (IRE), Found (IRE), Happily (IRE), Hydrangea (IRE), Love (IRE), Magical (IRE), Magic Wand (IRE), Minding (IRE), Rhododendron (IRE), Shale (IRE), Tuesday (IRE), Warm Heart, Was (IRE), and Winter (IRE). This cohort also includes Together Forever (IRE), the dam of City of Troy, unsurprisingly. Best In The World (IRE), the dam of ill-fated triple Oaks (G1) heroine Snowfall, and Toy (IRE), the impeccably well-bred 2022 Irish Oaks (G1) runner-up, are just two of the other high-profile Galileo mares sent by the operation to the stallion last year. Other notable names owned by Coolmore partners, outright or in part, covered by Justify in 2024 included 2017 U.S. champion 3-year-old filly Abel Tasman, Alpine Star (IRE), Bellafina, Bracelet (IRE), Campanelle (IRE), Cayenne Pepper (IRE), Even Song (IRE), Fairyland (IRE), Fancy Blue (IRE), 2020 U.S. champion female sprinter Gamine, Immortal Verse (IRE), Kimari, Legatissimo (IRE), Mother Earth (IRE), Newspaperofrecord (IRE), Roly Poly, Rosdhu Queen (IRE), 2020 U.S. champion turf female Rushing Fall, Samaready (AUS), September (IRE), and Sparrow (IRE). Safe to say that the Coolmore top brass play by the rules of "go big or go home." Lots of other breeders with European connections also made sure to get in on the action with Justify at his private fee last year, though. Ruling Court's owner Godolphin supported the stallion with U.S. grade 1 victress Dickinson, 2021 Balanchine (G2) winner Summer Romance (IRE), dual group 3 scorer Tranquil Lady (IRE), 104-rated Victory Wave, and multiple group 2 winner With The Moonlight (IRE). Juddmonte got behind him with a number of mares, and the Aga Khan Studs sent four-time group 1 heroine Tahiyra (IRE), group 2 winner Darkaniya (FR) and group 3 scorer Tariyana (FR). Justify is far from an outpost of European breeding activity, though, and among the more permanently North American-based grade 1 winners he was mated with last year were Bleecker Street, Byrama (GB), Cambier Parc, Chasing Yesterday, Dunbar Road, Eda, two-time U.S. champion Malathaat, Marketing Mix, Pizza Bianca, Regal Glory, Sharing, Spendarella, 2019 U.S. champion turf female Uni (GB), and War Flag. All of that is only really scratching the surface of Justify's 2024 book, which was deep on quality and will be so again this year, at a fee of $250,000 that made him America's joint-most expensive sire. There is time, and every opportunity, for the stallion to prove O'Brien right by becoming "the best ever" or at least one of the best, then. We might not have "seen anything like what's going to happen yet" after all.