Short rest fine for Judiths Wild Rush

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Top horses who excel while competing on short rest are a rarity, but Judiths Wild Rush has thrived on such action, and will be going with a two-week gap between engagements Saturday at Woodbine in the Grade 3, $150,000 Vigil Stakes.

Judiths Wild Rush defeated a first-rate group, which included champions A Bit O'Gold and Mobil, in the 2005 Vigil, just two weeks after his narrow loss in the Jacques Cartier Stakes. He received a triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure in both races.

Judiths Wild Rush subsequently took the July 9 Bold Venture Handicap two weeks after a failed turf experiment, earning a lifetime-best 108 Beyer. At the end of 2005, he was voted the Sovereign Award for champion sprinter by a wide margin.

"If you look at his Ragozin numbers, he's run the best races of his life two weeks apart," trainer Reade Baker said, referring to another type of speed figures. "It bodes well for him in the Vigil."

This year, Judiths Wild Rush finished third in the Grade 3 Deputy Minister and fourth in the Grade 2 Richter Scale, both at Gulfstream. He was a flat third in the five-furlong allowance prep for the Jacques Cartier, but then won that six-furlong stakes decisively, off a two-week break.

"As long as I've had him, I don't think he's ever won as easily as he did the other day," Baker said.

Judiths Wild Rush is a stall walker, a problem that Baker said he has been able to deal with successfully.

"We put him into a round pen that we turned into a square pen," Baker said. "He's fine when go goes in there. With a square pen, they get into a corner and stop."

Among the others entered in the seven-furlong Vigil are High Volt Jolt and Twisted Wit.

High Volt Jolt was second against optional claimers in each of his two winter races at Santa Anita. He ended up second in the Jacques Cartier after a front-running journey.

"There wasn't a lot of speed in there," trainer Josie Carroll said, adding that when jockey Constant Montpellier found himself on the lead, "he did the right thing and let him go on his way."

Twisted Wit, trained by Bob Tiller, is making his first start since capturing a $100,000 optional claimer Dec. 3.

"I don't know if he'll like the horses, but he'll like the distance," Tiller said. "Two of his three stakes wins have been at the [Vigil] distance."