Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
GULFSTREAM
X Y Jet seems back in top form
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – X Y Jet continues to give every indication he’s cycled back to his peak form of two years ago after drawing off to a convincing 5 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Sprint.
The performance impressed just about everyone in the crowd, including trainer Chad Summers, who has been keeping a close eye on a horse he believes could be the chief competition for his top sprinter Mind Your Biscuits in the Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 31.
X Y Jet earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure in the Sunshine Millions Sprint, his second win on the comeback trail following three knee surgeries that kept him sidelined 13 months prior to his half-length triumph in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector on Dec. 23. Trainer Jorge Navarro said that if all goes well, X Y Jet would likely have one more start before returning to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen. X Y Jet dropped a heartbreaking neck decision to Muarrab in the 2016 Golden Shaheen.
“I always thought he was one of the best sprinters [in the world] two years ago,” said Navarro. “Hopefully he comes back clean. After three knee surgeries, you never know what to expect. But so far he hasn’t taken a bad step. I was able to work him twice [since the Mr. Prospector], which was a big score. The last time I had him, I wasn’t even able to work him between races.”
Mind Your Biscuits won the 2017 Golden Shaheen, and Summers has been making plans to defend the title ever since his star finished a distant second behind Sharp Azteca in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 2. Mind Your Biscuits ran third, beaten three lengths by Roy H, four weeks earlier in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Mind Your Biscuits worked Friday for just the second time since the Cigar Mile, covering four furlongs in 47.40 with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard at Palm Meadows.
“He’s doing super,” said Summers. “He went in 47 and 2, galloped out in 59 and 3, and Irad told me afterwards he felt like he’d gone in 49. Right now, I’m aiming for the General George at Laurel for his first start of the year. I like the seven furlongs and the timing is good. It gives us six weeks until Dubai instead of four like we had last year, when we prepped him for the race in the Gulfstream Park Sprint. Although, naturally, I’m keeping a close eye on the situation up there to see how everything plays out.”
Summers was referring to the quarantine in place at Laurel due to a horse on the grounds recently having tested positive for the equine herpesvirus. If Mind Your Biscuits cannot get to Maryland for the Feb. 17 General George, it could set up an earlier-than-expected confrontation with X Y Jet in the Gulfstream Park Sprint on March 3.
“If we have to wait until [March 3], we will,” said Summers. “But he’s bigger, stronger, and faster than last year, and he’s doing so well I’m afraid I might not be able to keep him on the ground until then.”
J R’s Holiday well spotted
Picking out the right race for a horse can be as equally as important as how a trainer prepares his horse for the race. When it comes to race selection, Saffie Joseph Jr. has done a good job picking out Wednesday’s $51,000 optional-claiming race for J R’s Holiday’s 2018 debut.
Wednesday’s 1 3/8-mile main event is written as an entry-level allowance race, but carries a condition for horses who have not won on the turf since Jan. 24, 2017, giving the graded stakes-placed J R’s Holiday a class edge over the majority of the field. J R’s Holiday, runner-up in the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland during the spring of 2016, is coming off his best effort since joining Joseph’s barn last summer, a third-place finish behind the Grade 1-placed March on Dec. 29.
Joseph put blinkers back on J R’s Holiday for his last start and he believes a combination of the equipment change and the softer competition on Wednesday could finally put the turf specialist back in the winner’s circle for the first time in two years.
“The race is perfect for him,” said Joseph. “The distance is an unknown, but the way he runs he should go that far. And I think the blinkers really helped. He carries his head a little high and a little awkwardly when he runs, and the blinkers seem to keep him more focused. In his last start, he got bumped at the eighth pole and it stopped his momentum or I think he could have won.”
Trainer Danny Vella has also spotted English Illusion well on Wednesday in light of the conditions of the event. The longdistance specialist won a race at Woodbine in the fall, but that victory came over the synthetic track and not on turf. English Illusion will also be dropping in company, off a fifth-place finish in the two-mile Allen Jerkens Stakes here on Dec. 30.
Other key contenders include recent maiden winners Culture Carrier, Kulin Rock, and Arch Daddy.
Wednesday’s headliner is the fourth leg in a Rainbow 6 sequence that will begin with a carryover of in excess of $3.2 million. There will be a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 on Sunday.
◗ Good Magic was back on the work tab for the first time since his 4 1/2-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4, going three furlongs in 36.80 at Palm Meadows on Sunday. The easy breeze was the fastest of 10 at the distance on the tab that morning.
Trainer Chad Brown said if all goes well, Good Magic could make his 3-year-old debut here on March 3 in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.