WITHOUT doubt, Ashford Stud’s Justify (Scat Daddy) is bound for stardom in the breeding shed, having already been a sensation on the track.

While the weather was miserable in Belmont on Saturday, owner and breeder George Krikorian saw nothing but rainbows as his two-year-old filly Just F Y I, an anagram of her sire’s name, was most impressive in landing the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes. Winner on her Saratoga debut by just a head, this time she was almost four lengths clear of the rest, and she made it a day to remember for Krikorian, who earlier won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic with War Like Goddess.

Both winners earned free runs at the Breeders’ Cup, with Just F Y I now slated for a $2 million, Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies challenge. Krikorian described Just F Y I’s win as “extra special”, and he also raced the winner’s grandam, Starrer (Dynaformer), whom he purchased as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton for $35,000. She then went on to win more than a million dollars, and her six victories included a pair of Grade 1 races at Santa Anita. She was also runner-up in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes.

Starrer was a better racemare than a broodmare, though two of her five winners earned blacktype, and a pair of her daughters have produced Grade 1 class runners. Star Act (Street Cry), the dam of Just F Y I, was stakes-placed, and she is now the dam of three winners, all her runners. Interestingly, both of her previous winners took until the age of four to win.

This year Star Act had her fourth offspring, a full-sister to Just F Y I. Star Act’s half-sister Movie Moment (Paynter) placed in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes, while another sibling, the unraced Celebrity Cat (Storm Cat), bred the stakes winner and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up, Uncle Benny (Declaration Of War).

Starrer was born three years before her half-sister Stellar Jayne (Wild Rush). She sold to John Ferguson Bloodstock as a three-year-old for $3,600,000 19 years ago. At the time Stellar Jayne was a dual Grade 1 winner at Belmont, in the Mother Goose Stakes and the Gazelle Handicap, and she was back to the same track at four to add the Grade 1 Ruffian Handicap.

Star Billing

Subsequent to her purchase by Krikorian, Starrer’s pedigree received even more of a boost when one of her unraced half-sisters bred the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes winner Star Billing. Sold for $2,600,000, Star Billing is a daughter, like Starrer, of Dynaformer (Roberto). Just F Y I is the fourth Grade 1 winner in the immediate family in the past two decades.

What can be said of the 2018 US Triple Crown winner Justify that has not been said already? His first runners are just three, almost a quarter of all his winners are stakes winners, Just F Y I is his fourth Group/Grade 1 winner, and he has a pair in each crop.

In the space of a week, between his daughters Opera Singer winning the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac and Just F Y I landing the Frizette Stakes, Justify also sired a pair of Grade 2 juvenile-winning fillies, Buchu capturing the Jessamine Stake and Hard To Justify being victorious in the Miss Grillo Stakes. Don’t forget that this year’s two-year-old crop includes the European Group 2 winners City Of Troy and Ramatuelle, the latter being Group 1-placed, while one of his Grade 3 sophomore winners, Verifying, has three times been runner-up in a Grade 1.

Justify’s progeny have won in excess of $10 million, and 21 of his 87 winners have won a blacktype race. It is incredible to think that having gone to stud at a fee of $150,000, reduced to $125,000 for season three, that Justify has been available for two seasons at $100,000. Anyone who used him this year can be very pleased with themselves – you won’t get a chance to do so again!

Cup bound

While we are on the subject of Justify’s two-year-olds, his daughter Buchu is also Breeders’ Cup bound after her win in the weekend’s Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes. She is the first foal out of Flowering Peach (Galileo), a winner at Killarney and Gowran Park when trained at Ballydoyle. That mare foaled a filly by Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) this year.

Owned and bred by Rigney Racing, Buchu was sent for sale at Keeneland last year but failed to sell at $275,000. She has now won in excess of that amount, is a graded stakes winner, and her trainer is bullish about her chances at the Breeders’ Cup. Buchu is also from a top-class family, and a current one too.

Flowering Peach is a full-sister to three winners, one of which is a pattern winner in 2023. First Minister won the Group 3 Prix Hocquart but hasn’t been seen since running fourth in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris.

They are all out of Naples Bay (Giant’s Causeway), and she was a multiple Grade winner and placed mare. As a six-year-old she sold at Keeneland for $3,600,000 to M.V. Magnier, and a large part of her appeal was the fact that she is a half-sister to the leading sire Medaglia D’Oro (El Prado).