Belmont Stakes: Justify completes US Flat racing Triple Crown

Justify becomes the 13th horse to win the US Triple Crown

Justify has become the 13th horse to complete US Flat racing's Triple Crown with victory in the Belmont Stakes.

The Bob Baffert-trained horse followed his Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes wins in New York on Saturday.

The three-year-old colt, ridden by Mike Smith, is now unbeaten in six races since his debut in February.

He led from the start and was chased home by Gronkowski, formerly trained in Britain by Jeremy Noseda, with Hofburg in third.

Analysis

BBC horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght

This was brilliant by Justify to record a pretty facile, all-the-way win, and land the US Triple Crown less than four months after making his debut at Santa Anita, and having a total of six races in that time.

He looks a big, powerful type of horse - he must certainly be that to have coped with this kind of examination. It was striking how, despite all the hullabaloo of Belmont Stakes day, he hardly turned a hair.

Success in the Triple Crown in US racing is absolutely massive and will make the horse and those around him nationwide stars.

There have now been five winners in America since racing's original Triple Crown, in the UK, was last won by Nijinsky (1970). How good would it be to get another here soon?