Triple Crown hero Justify (USA) is not coming back to Coolmore Australia this spring, but if we needed a reminder as to what we are missing we got it at Randwick on Wednesday when three of his unraced two year-old colts came out and ran the trifecta in the juvenile maiden over 1100m with the winner Clear Proof carrying the famed colours of Think Big Stud.
It looked a fascinating maiden on paper with a lot of recent trial winners engaged and the quality of these colts was evident in the mounting yard when they paraded, sparking speculation from commentators that we were likely to see a strong form race for the future.
What nobody predicted was the winner with the John Thompson trained colt Clear Proof charging to the line to win by more than a length over the Ciaron Maher trained Axius with the Waterhouse Bott trained blue-blood Dawn Service ($1.4million first foal of Sunlight) working home nicely for third.
All three ran terrific races and will be well worth following.
“He’s a lovely colt and we’ve been happy with him from day one,” said John Thompson, who was not surprised the colt was able to win, despite starting at bolters odds of 100-1.
“He’d run some nice enough trials on bad surfaces when he was not handling it well at all and then today he got better ground and putting blinkers on was the key.
“He worked really well in them so we expected a good run.”
A $300,000 Inglis Classic purchase for DGR Thoroughbred Services (FBAA) / John Thompson Racing from Ridgmont Farm, Clear Proof has a real classic type pedigree. He is the first foal of stakes-placed Stravinsky (USA) mare Crystal Fountain, a three-quarter sister-in-blood to triple Group I winning Champion 3YO Filly Serenade Rose with dual Group I winner Trekking also on the page.
The second foal from Crystal Fountain is another colt by Justify that made $1.3million for Coolmore at Inglis Easter this year when bought by Waller Racing/ Mulcaster Bloodstock. She had a filly by Wild Ruler last spring and is due to foal again to Justify.
