Legitify Debut Race Recap

Legitify broke a little slow, went to the front, but faded in the stretch finishing 8th and last.

It was a disappointing end result to Legitify’s debut today at Santa Anita Park. Our 3YO colt handled himself well in the paddock pre-race, despite plenty of commotion from the horse to his inside, #1 Hurricane Way.

Legitify was off a step slow from the gate, but recovered fairly quickly under urging from jockey Kazushi Kimura, which was by design. Given his previous tie-back surgery, we have learned that fighting him in the early stages does not play in his favor. Despite the sluggish break, he was still able to make the lead, but he certainly had to work for it completing the half in :46.60. Kazushi said at that point he could feel Legitify beginning to tire and kept him engaged until he knew his chances were over.

Unfortunately, the early pressure required to get the colt to the front affected his chances late. He had a pretty extensive work tab leading into this debut including multiple six-furlong drills, so we felt fitness wasn’t going to be an issue, but you just never know until they run their debut. So far, Legitify has come back in good physical order, but is pretty fatigued according to the barn. He will be scoped and we will follow up with the results in our post race update tomorrow. We’ll have to regroup and figure out what our next steps are as all parties were certainly expecting better.

We do know now that Legitify has the same speed in the afternoons that he’s shown in the mornings, so hopefully it’s just a matter of taking advantage of the fitness and conditioning he’ll surely gain coming out of today’s effort.