TOBA September Member of the Month
On July 5, Royal Justice took home a crown worthy of her regal name. The three-year-old filly captured the Ellen’s Lucky Star Handicap, her first stakes win, at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Her decisive 6 1/2-length victory was nothing short of queenly; the Justice Farm homebred has become yet another jewel in the diadem for Kentucky horseman Greg Justice.
“I got started back in my twenties,” he recalled. “I was working for the Kentucky American Water Company, and I decided I was going to buy a Thoroughbred. I went over to Keeneland, and I bought one mare, and I remember, her name was Reflected. She was a gray mare, and she was in foal to Woodman. I paid $17,000 for her and I sold that baby for $90,000. So, I took that $90,000 that same week at the Keeneland sale and bought me three or four mares and broodmares and been going ever since.”
Justice is a Kentucky man through and through, but he’s had massive success in Indiana. Perhaps his best-known stallion is Harry’s Holiday , who stands at Breakaway Farm near Dillsboro; he also foals his mares at that nursery. “Yeah, I’m based in Lexington,” said Justice, “and then we transfer our horses up to Breakaway Farm to do our foaling out and standing my stallions and stuff like that.” He currently has about 50 broodmares which he keeps in Lexington, then he sends to Indiana to foal. “And when they get close to foaling, usually I like them to get up there about two weeks before they foal so they can get used to their new environment, get settled in, and then have their baby.”
How did he get involved in Indiana breeding? Justice recalled that “I’ve been doing that program, God, since I was in my twenties, so I’ve been doing that program for about 40 years. Started just taking a few mares up there. Their program got better and better all the time. And of course, I got more horses all the time and it’s just been a good fix for me.” He added, “So I keep a truck driver on the road a whole lot, taking mares, bringing mares back, and all this kind of stuff.”
Justice prefers to fly solo as an owner and breeder. He said of his mares, “I don’t particularly like to do partnerships, so all of them are my own. I don’t board any horses or anything, don’t have the room. I got so many. Currently right now, if you count my broodmares, my racehorses, my yearlings, the babies on the mares’ side and stuff, I’ve got about 115 horses.”
At the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February Mixed sale, Justice Farm purchased Royal Justice’s dam, Golden Pioneer (by Pioneerof the Nile), in foal to Harry’s Holiday, for $10,000. Although she was a non-winner, her dam was a half-sister to four stakes winners, three of whom won graded/group competitions. Her 2022 Cloud Computing filly, eventually named Royal Justice, RNA’ed for $8,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling sale.
“Well, Royal Justice, she’s a good horse. We had never run on the grass prior to that stake race the other day. And so, we didn’t really know how she was going to like the grass, but as you can tell, she liked it real good,” Justice said with a laugh. “But I mean, she’s been a consistent horse. I had another horse, a three-year-old that was her competition, Elegant Justice . She’s [Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association] champion two-year-old last year, really, really good horse. So ‘Royal’ really took a backseat to ‘Elegant’ because ‘Elegant’ was so good. Well, this year, ‘Elegant’ has some problems and she’s not near the horse she was as a two-year-old. I mean, actually she’s over at the clinic right now; we had to do some throat surgery and stuff like that. So ‘Royal’ stepped up to the plate and we’re just really tickled and pleased. I mean, she is a good horse, but she’s really showing now how good she is.”
Justice is coming off of a banner year. As an owner, Justice Farm had its best year yet, earning $534,517. Last year alone, Justice Farm was named Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s 2024 Breed Development Breeder of the Year, plus Elegant Justice’s honor. TOBA selected Justice as Indiana Breeder of the Year in 2015, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
