My Boy Jack going the distance after Zuma Beach win

ARCADIA, Calif. – It was the distance, not the surface, that sealed the fate of My Boy Jack this summer and fall, and that has put him in position to compete Nov. 3 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar following a victory Monday in the Zuma Beach Stakes at Santa Anita.

Keith Desormeaux, his trainer, wanted to run My Boy Jack around two turns as soon as he could.

“I’m ready to go long in June,” he said of his 2-year-olds, only half-joking.

The first two-turn juvenile race at Santa Anita during its spring-summer meet was on grass July 1, so My Boy Jack moved to that surface for his second start.

“That was the first race available at that distance,” Desormeaux said.

My Boy Jack, a colt by Creative Cause, finished second that day, was second twice more at Del Mar in one-mile turf races, and then won the Zuma Beach for his first victory. He’ll make his fifth straight start in a one-mile grass race in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

“I was looking for distance,” Desormeaux said. “Fortunately, he took to the turf.”

My Boy Jack got a Beyer Speed Figure of 80 for his win in the Zuma Beach.