Four-time graded stakes winner Vyjack retired at 9

ARCADIA, Calif. - The racetrack ride is over for 9-year-old gelding Vyjack, the multiple graded stakes winner who holds the Santa Anita turf course record for one mile (1:31.69). Vyjack has been retired from racing, trainer Phil D’Amato said Tuesday.

Vyjack is owned David Wilkenfeld, whose stable name is Pick Six Racing. Wilkenfeld purchased Vyjack for $100,000 at a 2-year-old sale in 2012, and kept him through a career that spanned six seasons. Racing for D’Amato and trainers Rudy Rodriguez and Bill Mott, Vyjack won eight races and $1,427,600 from 31 starts.

This is the second retirement for Vyjack. He initially retired with a suspensory injury in 2018, but recovered quickly and returned to the track later in the year to attempt a 2019 comeback. After working five furlongs March 5 at Santa Anita, Vyjack took a couple bad steps and was vanned off the track. It was a false alarm; Vyjack was not injured.

“The horse means a lot to (Wilkenfeld) and his family,” D’Amato said. “It was his decision to bring him back, and his decision to retire him. (Vyjack) has done enough. He’ll retire healthy and happy.”

Vyjack was the only runner from the 2013 Kentucky Derby that was still in training. He finished 18th of 19 in the Derby. He won four graded stakes: three on dirt, one on turf. In 2013 he won the Grade 2 Jerome and Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct. In 2014 he won the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap at Belmont and in 2016 he won the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita in course-record time.

D’Amato and Wilkenfeld are in the process of finding a permanent home for Vyjack, who is at a ranch in Temecula, Calif.