Breeders’ Cup Replay | 2023 Juvenile Fillies Turf: Hard To Justify Still Perfect Following Win

Hard to Justify won the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita Park to remain perfect through 3 starts. The Chad Brown trainee won the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2) last time out.

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Watch the race replay here:

The press release:

Wise Racing LLC’s Hard to Justify ($20.20) swept to the lead at midstretch and then outdueled favorites Porta Fortuna (IRE) and She Feels Pretty through the final sixteenth of a mile to post a head victory in the 16th running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) for 2-year-olds Friday afternoon at Santa Anita.

Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Flavien Prat, Hard to Justify completed the mile over a firm turf course in 1:34.42. It is the 17th Breeders’ Cup victory for Brown and sixth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. For Prat, it is his fifth Breeders’ Cup victory and first in this race.

Brown’s other victories in the race came with Maram (2008), Lady Eli (2014), New Money Honey (2016), Rushing Fall (2017) and Newspaperofrecord (IRE) (2018).

Longshot Dreamfyre set the pace with Hard to Justify tracking just behind her. They ran 1-2 until the stretch when Hard to Justify moved to the fore with Porta Fortuna to her inside and She Feels Pretty to her outside while Austere made a bold bid along the rail. However, in the final yards, Hard to Justify had enough of a cushion to claim the victory.

The victory was worth $520,000 sand increased Hard to Justify’s earnings to $687,750 as she remained perfect in three starts. She is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Justify out of the Quality Road mare Instant Reflex.