Desormeaux hoping to make noise with Ayacara, My Boy Jack
ARCADIA, Calif. – For nearly two years, from late 2014 through the summer of 2016, trainer Keith Desormeaux enjoyed the finest stretch of his career, winning four Grade 1, seven-figure races.
The stable had one of the most prominent 3-year-olds of 2016 in Exaggerator, who won the $1,000,690 Santa Anita Derby, $1.5 million Preakness, and $1,015,000 Haskell Invitational. Two years earlier, Texas Red won the $1.84 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.
“That was a nice run,” Desormeaux reflected recently. “I hope it’s not the end. I’m optimistic.”
Desormeaux’s stable had a quiet 2017. After Decked Out won the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita on Dec. 31, 2016, the stable did not win another stakes until My Boy Jack took the Zuma Beach Stakes for 2-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita last October.
My Boy Jack and another 3-year-old, Ayacara, are the core of what Desormeaux hopes will be a promising team for 2018. Already this year, the stable has had a stakes winner, with Sonneteer taking the Fifth Season Stakes for older horses at Oaklawn Park on Jan. 12.
On Saturday, Ayacara is scheduled to start in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita. The $150,000 Lewis Stakes is part of the prep series leading to the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 7.
Ayacara, a colt by Violence who races for Charles and Cynthia Marquis, was second in the Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Dec. 2 and sixth in the Eddie Logan Stakes on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 29.
Back in August, Ayacara won a maiden race at a mile on dirt at Del Mar before a fourth-place finish behind Bolt d’Oro in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita.
While Ayacara does not have a flashy race record, the 51-year-old Desormeaux has seen enough promise to hope for improvement on Saturday and in the coming months.
“We’ve thought he was a good horse,” Desormeaux said. “His races have been good, not great.
“He does have a turf pedigree. I think the races in which he’s been best have been on the turf, but it doesn’t make enough of a difference not to switch surfaces.”
In a sense, Ayacara is in a perfect race on Saturday. The Lewis Stakes is not expected to draw the leading 3-year-old runners on the circuit.
The race does have a productive history. In 2012, I’ll Have Another won the Lewis and followed with wins in the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness and was named champion 3-year-old male.
Desormeaux hopes to have runners in two graded stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 19. Sonneteer will return to Arkansas for the Grade 2 Razorback Handicap, a $500,000 race at 1 1/16 miles. My Boy Jack is a candidate for the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes, a $500,000 race for 3-year-olds at a mile.
My Boy Jack followed his win in the Zuma Beach Stakes with a seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 3. In his 3-year-old debut on Jan. 6, My Boy Jack was third in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes behind the highly regarded McKinzie.
The Sham Stakes at a mile was My Boy Jack’s stakes debut on dirt and left Desormeaux wanting to try the colt again on dirt. There is hope Ayacara and My Boy Jack can start in seven-figure races this spring and summer.
“We’ll see where we are,” said Desormeaux. “I think he’s just as good as Ayacara. His next race will determine whether he is that good.”
