Vyjack starts California career in Pat O'Brien

DEL MAR, Calif. – In the nearly four years since Vyjack won his debut, the gelding has won stakes on dirt in sprints and around two turns, started in two Triple Crown races, finished second in two graded stakes on turf, and earned more than $1.1 million.

On Saturday, Vyjack will start in the $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on dirt at Del Mar. The O’Brien Stakes will be Vyjack’s 26th start and his first in California. It also will be his first start at less than a mile since a third in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga in August 2014.

“We’ve seen in the past that he’s run well on the grass, but he trains so well on the dirt,” new trainer Phil D’Amato said.

Vyjack joined D’Amato’s stable in June, having run on turf the preceding year for trainer Bill Mott. Vyjack was 18th in the Kentucky Derby and eighth in the Belmont Stakes in 2013 when trained by Rudy Rodriguez.

A 6-year-old gelding owned by Pick Six Racing, Vyjack may wind up back on turf, but the conditions of the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes appeal to D’Amato. The race is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth to the BC Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4 to the winner.

“We want to see if we can have another option for the Breeders’ Cup,” D’Amato said on Wednesday.

The Pat O’Brien will be Vyjack’s first start on dirt since a fifth in an optional claimer on a sealed and sloppy track at Belmont Park last October. Vyjack was second in the Grade 3 Red Bank Stakes on turf at Monmouth Park on June 5, his final start for Mott.

The O’Brien Stakes will have a small field led by Masochistic, the winner of the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita in 2015. Other probable starters are Cautious Giant, Outside Nashville, and Indexical.

◗ Santa Anita will open its stable area on Sept. 2 and open for training the following day in advance of the autumn meeting that begins Sept. 30, the track announced Wednesday. Santa Anita’s stable area has been closed since mid-July during the Del Mar summer meeting, which ends Sept. 5. Los Alamitos has a Thoroughbred meeting Sept. 8-25.