Justify Wins Belmont, Ruins Mystique Of Triple Crown For A Generation

Justify clocked a 2:28 in the mile-and-a-half of the Belmont Stakes today, earning the first Triple Crown since, uh, three years ago, and driving a stake through the heart of mystery that surrounded the feat for millions.

At 4/5 odds, Justify succeeded where many other horses could not. When American Pharoah achieved the Triple Crown, becoming the first horse to do so in my life and probably yours, it was magical: the thing we’d wondered if we’d ever see happen, happened, and we might be dead by the time it could happen again.

Then it happened again, three years later! Who gives a shit now, right?

Like a shitty remake of a classic film, we are left with our lives permanently altered for the worse. Can we tap into what it felt like to watch one horse run faster than the other horses three times in a row, those three long years ago? Will we want to?

(It could be worse. After Secretariat was the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 25 years, it happened again twice more within five years. Now you know why Baby Boomers are the way they are.)

Gronkowski finished second, which is NOT where he finished three years ago.

[NBC]