LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Justify crushed the curse, becoming the first horse since Apollo in 1882 to win the Kentucky Derby without racing as a 2-year-old.

Justify didn’t race until Feb. 15 but ran Saturday like a total pro, coping with a sloppy track, a hot early pace, and turning back an upper stretch challenge from 2-year-old champion Good Magic to win by 2 ½ lengths. Mike Smith, who gave Justify a flawless ride, won his second Derby. The race is old hat for trainer Bob Baffert, who won it for the fifth time.

Good Magic barely held second as Audible, easily the best-performing of four Todd Pletcher-trained horses, came up the rail to just miss second. Instilled Regard, an 85-1 shot, finished fourth, while My Boy Jack, the subject of very surprising heavy action from the time Derby betting opened, ran late for fifth at odds of 6-1.

Mendelssohn, the Aidan O’Brien colt who shipped from Ireland and had won the UAE Derby by more than 18 lengths, raced in the second flight, came under heavy pressure before the half-mile pole, and quickly wilted, eventually finishing last.

Promises Fulfilled jumped out to the lead from an inside draw but Justify broke very sharply from post 7 and quickly came up to press the pace – and the pace was scorching. Promised Fulfilled tore through an opening quarter in 22.24 seconds, a half in a sprint-like 45.77, and six furlongs in 1:11.01, and as Justify chased him, he seemed to be moving as easily as in any of his three previous wins, all blowouts.

Justify flicked away Promises Fulfilled and as he hit the quarter-pole, going a mile in 1:37.35, Good Magic had emerged from the pack and was making his run. Justify is a very fast horse, as he has shown from the start of his career, but he also possesses a great temperament; when his rider says go Justify goes, and when the rider says whoa, he whoas. So, when Good Magic made his bid Justify still had plenty left in the tank, and in a matter of strides he had put down that rebellion, coasting home to the finish, the outcome never in further doubt, and stopping the timer in 2:054.20 over the sloppy mess of a racing surface.

Justify paid $7.80 to win, validating the position he’d held as Derby favorite since his victory in the Santa Anita Derby last month. Justify is owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, Starlight Racing, and Head of Plains Partner, and was bred in Kentucky by John Gunther. A strapping chestnut colt with huge hindquarters and an imposing shoulder – a man among boys, at this stage of the game – he is by the deceased stallion Scat Daddy and out of the Ghostzapper mare, Stage Magic.

Justify started his serious training last spring but was late to make the races owing to what Elliott Walden, president and CEO of racing operations at WinStar, described as a muscle pull. He began breezing at Keeneland in the autumn before being shipped to Baffert in Santa Anita, and his reputation was already such that Justify was 1-2 in his career debut.

The reputation was, well, justified. And the curse of Apollo is over.