Justify Colt Registers Fifth Stakes Victory

Justify’s four-time stakes winner Valentine Candy (3c Justify x Taste Like Candy, by Candy Ride) added a fifth victory to his resume on Friday night in the Listed Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes.

The tightly packed field in the seven-furlong dirt race saw Valentine Candy sit in fourth just about two lengths off the pace. Happy to sit there for the first half of the race, he started his run for the lead as they entered the final three furlongs. Riding the rail in the far turn, he took control as they entered the final furlong.

Continued to be ridden by Cristian Torres, the colt widened his margin to 1 ½ lengths at the line.

The victory takes Valentine Candy to six wins and three other top three finishes in 12 starts for $818,875 in earnings. He has raced almost exclusively in stakes company throughout his career for William and Corinne Helligbrodt, Jackpot Farm, Whispering Oaks, and Coteau Grove Farms.

The Steve Asmussen-trained colt was bred by Pine Creek out of the Grade I-placed Taste Like Candy.

That mare is a half-sister to the stakes winning Southern Success and to the dam of American Pharoah’s stakes placed Prince of Pharoahs. Multiple Grade I winner Affirmed Success and Munnings’ Grade III winner Wondrwherecraigis are also under his third dam.

This was the second stakes winner of the week for Justify, who also saw son City of Troy win his third straight Group I race in England.