McKinzie was among the brightest stars in the early season preps for this year’s Kentucky Derby although three wins in four starts, but ended up missing the and Also the Triple Crown season
Marquee summer races following a hind leg injury in the spring.
While Justify, his stablemate, carried the banner for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and went on to become the 13 th winner of the Triple Crown , McKinzie sat on the sidelines,
But he’s now ready to restart the part of top 3-year-old in the Baffert barn that Justify is retired.
He made a powerful case for this if he won the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby Sept. 22 by 1 3/4 lengths in his first race in six months.
“If anything could be taken away out of a sting of a Triple Crown horse retiring, it’s a horse in this way,” said jockey Mike Smith, who rode Justify, after the Pennsylvania Derby. “He is an
Incredible horse. Really proud of him. Bob [trainer Bob Baffert] had him prepared. Bob is only a trainer to come off the seat at a mile and an eighth. I felt quite confident that I could be aggressive early and move a little ancient.”
“He had been training very well,” Baffert added following the race. “I always felt as though he was the best 3-year-old and he got hurt and Justify picked it up. He has come back with all the time off and has reacted well. It was great to see him return in the game. It was a tall order to go 1??1/8 miles away that sort of layoff. But it is possible to do it with great horses. I believed we had him tight. I believed we had him fairly tight as though he was the horse I felt. In the event that you’d asked me on January 1, I’d have told me we were going to win the Kentucky Derby with that horse.”
The colt, a $170,000 purchase at the 2016 September Sale of Keeneland, was appointed for the longtime buddy, the late Brad McKinzie, a executive at Los Alamitos Race Course who of Baffert Expired is August 2017.