Sharp Azteca targets Godolphin Mile

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jorge Navarro’s first trip to Dubai last spring ended in disappointment when X Y Jet ran his heart out only to suffer a heartbreaking neck defeat in the Golden Shaheen. X Y Jet also incurred an injury during the race that forced him to the sidelines for the next six months.

Undeterred, Navarro is preparing to return to Dubai next month with perhaps an even more potent weapon, Sharp Azteca, who earned a trip to the March 25 Godolphin Mile with his 4 1/2-length triumph in Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.

“That’s the race I’ve been waiting for from him for a long time,” said Navarro, who trains Sharp Azteca for Gelfentstein Farm. “It was the best of his career by far. I remember telling people that I felt he was one of the top 3-year-olds in the nation last year, not just 3-year-old sprinters, and they thought I was crazy. I actually had been pointing him for the Haskell at the time, but we went to the Woody Stephens instead, and that was a mistake. Then he grabbed a quarter, and everything went south. Thank God he came back okay.”

Sharp Azteca capped his 3-year-old campaign by finishing second in the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita, beaten a length by Mind Your Biscuits.

Sharp Azteca received a career-best 107 Beyer Speed Figure for his effort on Saturday.

“The horse came back incredible from this race,” Navarro said Monday. “He showed no signs of being tired, no stress. Our main goal with him right now is the Met Mile, but that’s a long ways down the road, and we can’t go around in circles until then. I talked with the people in Dubai this morning and told them we’re getting everything ready to go.”

Navarro said he wasn’t concerned that a trip to Dubai might take too much out of Sharp Azteca prior to the Met Mile.

“I think a lot of people have it in their heads that it beats a horse up to go to Dubai, but that’s nonsense,” said Navarro. “Didn’t Frosted go to Dubai, then come back and run the best race of his career in the Met Mile last year? I’m so confident my horse can handle it. He handled the 24-hour trip back from Santa Anita just fine and ran this race. He’s clean-legged, and, most important, he doesn’t bleed. That would be my main concern going to Dubai, if he were a bleeder, and he’s not.”