BALTIMORE – They charged into the first turn, right together. Justify and Good Magic, one-two in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, had hooked up early in the 143rd Preakness Stakes, and then, upon reaching the clubhouse turn, they were gone, swallowed whole by the jaws of the fog that had descended upon Pimlico on Saturday. Cameras wired to big screen monitors in the infield tried mightily to follow the action, but there was a moment around the far turn, and entering the lane, when nothing could be seen. The anticipation was palpable. What would emerge from this fog – something sinister, like out of the John Carpenter film, or the clear realization that another Triple Crown bid would be nigh? Justify had the answer. He came out of the swirling mist as he was starting to get the best of Good Magic, but as he neared the finish, the longshots Tenfold and then Bravazo made their bids. Justify, though, held on, responding to the steady left-handed whip of his jockey, Mike Smith. It was his hardest race yet, since his career began a mere 13 weeks ago, but was clear evidence, again, that he is the best 3-year-old of this crop, one who has won five races, including two Triple Crown races, in three months. Whether that will add up to a Belmont Stakes victory in three weeks will be dissected and parsed over the next 21 days. Was this analogous to American Pharoah’s hard-fought victory in the Derby, which launched him in 2015 to runaway victories in the Preakness and Belmont, or will it take just enough starch out of Justify to make the Triple Crown elusive? Get the Belmont Stakes All-Access package for just $29.95! What was certain on Saturday was that Justify had been tested like never before. Good Magic, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, was sent along from inside of Justify, and turned it into an early match race. Justify won that battle, and won the war. “These great horses define themselves when they get in this situation,” said Bob Baffert, who trains Justify. “They put it to us, like they had their own private match race. Great horses handle all that pressure and keep on running. Good Magic, he really made us work for it.” The early duel allowed the others to make a race of it. Justify ($2.80), the heavy favorite, reached the wire a half-length in front of Bravazo, who was a neck better than Tenfold, who was a neck in front of Good Magic. Lone Sailor was another length back in fifth, beaten just two lengths, then it was a long way back to Sporting Chance, Diamond King, and Quip, who tired badly and wound up last in the field of eight. All the fractions belonged to Justify. He led after a quarter in 23.11 seconds, a half in 47.19 seconds, six furlongs in 1:11.42, and one mile in 1:36.10 en route to a final time of 1:55.93 for 1 3/16 miles on a track rated sloppy. He received a Beyer Speed Figure of 97, the first time he has had a fig of less than 101. Justify thus heads to the 1 1/2-mile Belmont on June 9 in New York with a chance to become the sport’s 13th Triple Crown winner and second this decade, following the Baffert-trained American Pharoah, who in 2015 became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Justify is the first horse who did not race at age 2 to win both the Derby and the Preakness. He made his first start on Feb. 18. What he has accomplished to date is unprecedented. “He’s had a lot of hard races in a row,” Baffert said. “This reminded me a lot of American Pharoah’s Derby. You can only get away with that when you have a superior horse like he is.” Baffert has proven himself a superior trainer, too, and this victory was record-equaling on two fronts. Baffert has now won 14 Triple Crown races, tying him with D. Wayne Lukas for most among trainers all-time, and this was his seventh Preakness victory, tying him for the most in the race’s history with R. Wyndham Walden, who plied his trade in the late 1800s. Baffert has won the Derby five times, and all five of his Derby winners have now come back and won the Preakness. His four previous horses who pulled off that double all went on to attempt a Triple Crown sweep in the Belmont. American Pharoah got it done, Real Quiet and Silver Charm suffered close defeats, and War Emblem was well beaten after stumbling badly leaving the gate. Now comes Justify, who has won his first two Triple Crown races on off tracks. Pimlico officials said more than seven inches of rain fell here beginning on Tuesday, and though it finally relented midway through the card on Saturday, it remained cloudy and the track was a sea of slop. Then, later in the day, rising temperatures produced fog that obscured many of the portions of the track not already blocked by a concert stage, party tents, and other obstacles in the infield. By the time the Preakness was run, the fog was as thick as it had been all day. Justify broke well from the gate from post 7. “He wouldn’t take his eyes off those doors until they opened,” Smith said. But then Good Magic, who started from post 5, came right up inside of him. It was not planned, according to Jose Ortiz, the jockey on Good Magic. “That wasn’t the plan, my fault,” Ortiz said. “Post position hurt me a little bit, probably if I would have drawn outside it would have been much better, he would have settled better.” Too late. They were locked in battle. As they went into the first turn, Smith said Justify jumped tracks left by the wheels of temporary bridges on which patrons go to and from the infield between races. “He really got to slipping,” said Smith, who said Justify wasn’t comfortable again until he straightened into the backstretch. And then around the far turn, even on the track monitors, they disappeared in the fog. “It seemed like an eternity,” said Elliott Walden, the president and chief executive officer of WinStar Farm, one of the owners of Justify. “Where are they? Where are they? He went into the turn in front. I was hoping to see those white silks in front.” They were. Justify kept his head in front of Good Magic into the lane, and though Good Magic began to weaken, there were new challenges for Smith and Justify to fend off, from Bravazo and Tenfold, and he kept them all at bay. “Although he got tired, he was looking around,” Smith said. “A bit of his greenness came out. This was by far his hardest race.” The Preakness, with a purse of $1.5 million, was worth $900,000 to the winning partnership, which includes WinStar, China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, and Starlight Racing. Justify has come a long way in a short amount of time. A lot has been thrown at him, and each time he has handled it. He won the Santa Anita Derby in just his third start, became the first horse in 136 years to win the Derby without a start at 2, and on Saturday here at Pimlico let neither rain nor a sloppy track nor fog accompanied by the creeping gloom of night keep him from his appointed rounds. He delivered.  – additional reporting by David Grening