Jazil fine, summer racing awaits

ELMONT, N.Y. - Jazil emerged from his victory in Saturday's Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in good shape, and now will be pointed for the major 3-year-old race of the summer, the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, his trainer, Kiaran McLaughlin, said Sunday morning.

Bluegrass Cat and Sunriver, who finished second and third in the Belmont, also will aim for the Travers, according to trainer Todd Pletcher.

Those three are part of a strong crop of 3-year-olds who should be the focal point of racing the second half of the year. Also aiming for the Travers is Bernardini, who won the Preakness, and perhaps Discreet Cat, who won the United Arab Emirates Derby earlier this year and is now training in the United States.

Bernardini and Discreet Cat are owned by Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, the brother of Jazil's owner, Sheikh Hamdan.

McLaughlin, a former assistant to trainer D. Wayne Lukas, said "I almost had tears in my eyes" after getting a congratulatory call from Lukas on Sunday morning.

"He said he couldn't have been prouder than if I had been his own son," McLaughlin said.

Tom Albertrani, who trains Deputy Glitters, said he had yet to find a concrete excuse for why his horse stopped so badly after a mile. He said Deputy Glitters did not have any leg problems on Sunday morning. He theorized that Deputy Glitters might have displaced his palate during the race.

"He seems fine, but there was definitely something amiss," Albertrani said. "He ran like he displaced."