Justify (1), with jockey Mike Smith up, crosses the finish line to win the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race, Saturday, June 9, 2018, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

 Julie Jacobson

NEW YORK — Bob Baffert has done it again. 

Justify won Saturday's Belmont Stakes, giving Baffert — the Nogales, Arizona-born, University of Arizona-educated horse trainer — his second triple crown. He also did so in 2015 with American Pharoah, a colt that ended a 37-year drought.

Baffert becomes the second trainer to ever win the Triple Crown twice.

Justify, a chestnut colt, is the second undefeated colt to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, improving to 6-0 in a racing career that began on Feb. 18. Seattle Slew was unbeaten when he won the Triple Crown in 1977.

Sent off as the 4-5 favorite, Justify went to the lead out of the starting gate and led nine rivals around the track's sweeping turns on Saturday. He's the first Triple Crown winner to face that many rivals in the 1½-mile Belmont.

At 52, Mike Smith is the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown.

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