Jalil preps for Mass Cap in Waquoit

Stars are expected to line up for next month's Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs, but it's a pleasant surprise that Saturday's Mass Cap prep race has some major names involved, too, as graded stakes winners Jalil and Judiths Wild Rush square off in the $50,000 Waquoit Stakes.

Granted, the Mass Cap isn't going to get Curlin or Big Brown, but if Jalil gives Godolphin Racing its second Suffolk stakes win on Saturday, he would likely come back for the Mass Cap on Sept. 20.

Jalil has been off since a seventh-place finish in the Dubai World Cup behind Curlin. He sold for $9.7 million at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2005. Expensive horses like that don't normally show up at Suffolk, but Godolphin's team is serious about getting another win Saturday to go along with the victory by Afrashad in the Moseley Handicap on Mass Cap Day last year.

"We want to see where he fits in this country, and the Waquoit is a good starting point," said Rick Mettee, the U.S. assistant to trainer Saeed bin Suroor. "The timing, the distance, and the surface all make sense, and the Mass Cap is a possibility."

Jalil, 4, has won four of his eight career races. After making only a single start at Newmarket as a 2-year-old in 2006, he broke into the win column at 3 by winning at Ripon, one of his three starts last season in Great Britain.

He came to hand last winter in Dubai by winning three World Cup preps but tired in the $6 million race itself and was beaten 15 lengths by Curlin.

Rajiv Maragh will be in to ride Jalil in the Waquoit.

Judiths Wild Rush just needs to show up to become a millionaire. He has won 11 times, including the Grade 3 Marine Stakes as a 3-year-old in 2004 at Woodbine. While banking more than $200,000 in the last two years, he has gone winless in his last 17 starts, including a runner-up finish in the Skip Away Stakes at Monmouth July 26. He has been second or third a dozen times since his last win.