Navarro, X Y Jet hope persistance pays off in Dubai Golden Shaheen

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – For a guy with a big bad-beat history at Meydan Racecourse, Jorge Navarro was a pretty happy dude early Thursday morning.

“I mean, c’mon, look at him,” Navarro said, pointing to X Y Jet, whose hindquarters, massive hams under splotched gray hide, churned over the Meydan dirt track.

X Y Jet knows the surface well. In 2016, he finished second by a neck in the Dubai Golden Shaheen. That one stung, but X Y Jet’s nose loss to deep-closing Mind Your Biscuits in the 2018 Shaheen might’ve hurt more. In 2017, Navarro absolutely had the best horse here in the Godolphin Mile, but Sharp Azteca was cut loose almost a furlong too soon and consequently was cut down on the wire.

Try, try, try, and try again evidently is the Navarro mantra, and though X Y Jet is a 7-year-old now, Navarro likes his chances of, you know, actually winning a Dubai race in the Group 1, $2.5 million Golden Shaheen.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into him. I swear he’s training better right now than he ever has. His joints are cold as ice. He couldn’t be doing better,” Navarro said.

Navarro’s mood was considerably cheerier than that of fellow trainer Peter Miller, who on Thursday had to scratch two-time Eclipse Award-winner Roy H from the Golden Shaheen because of a painfully abscessed left-front hoof.

“We just need to focus on getting him right,” said Miller, who added that Roy H had been fighting the foot problem since arriving here from California.

With the most accomplished American out, X Y Jet’s main competition in this dirt race over 1,200 meters, about six furlongs, should come from the other two – Imperial Hint and Promises Fulfilled.

Imperial Hint’s trainer, Luis Carvajal, has his own tale of Dubai woe: Two years ago, Imperial Hint got sick upon arrival and didn’t have a chance to contest the Golden Shaheen. Second to Roy H in the 2017 BC Sprint, Imperial Hint was a distant third behind him in the 2018 BC Sprint, and on Feb. 16, in his Golden Shaheen prep at Tampa Bay Downs, he finished third in the $75,000 Pelican Stakes at odds of 1-5.

“I thought it was going to be a paid workout,” Carvajal said.

Imperial Hint came out of that race with his own minor physical issue, but that quickly was resolved and Imperial Hint got back on the Dubai track with a series of fast Tampa workouts. In the Breeders’ Cup last November he was compromised both by a bad back and a dislike of the Churchill racing surface, and Carvajal believes Imperial Hint is ready to put his best hoof forward.

Jose Ortiz rides Imperial Hint, who with the Roy H scratch now has the inside post, with speedy X Y Jet next to him. Outside those two is Promises Fulfilled, whom trainer Dale Romans expects to at least break in front.

“Nobody’s quicker than he is,” said Romans, who figures Promises Fulfilled, fourth in the BC Sprint, will settle into stride just behind the other Americans.

Late-running Drafted, trained by Doug Watson, has been the leading local sprinter during the winter, landing Group 3s over 1,200 meters on dirt in his last two starts. Tato Key, an Argentine import, wasn’t far behind him in either race, but neither horse might have the quality to run down American sprinters, even of the tiring variety.

Switzerland, Nine Below Zero, Matera Sky, and Fight Hero complete the field. The Golden Shaheen goes as race 6, with post time set for 9:40 a.m. Eastern.