X Y Jet pointing to Smile Sprint

Trainer Jorge Navarro has plenty of lucrative options for X Y Jet’s first start back since his frustrating, second-place finish behind Mind Your Biscuits earlier this spring in the Dubai Golden Shaheen. But his choice to launch the second half of the speedster’s 2018 campaign is the Grade 3, $250,000 Smile Sprint on June 30 at Gulfstream Park.

X Y Jet looked home free at midstretch in the $2 million Golden Shaheen only to succumb, by a head, to Mind Your Biscuits’s furious stretch rally. The setback snapped a three-race winning streak for X Y Jet that included victories at Gulfstream in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector and Sunshine Millions Sprint.

“Right now, our plan is to baby him along and get him to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in the best possible shape we can,” said Navarro, who is based at Monmouth Park during the summer. “There are Grade 1 races around that we can run him in. But he’s a gelding, so winning a race like that doesn’t really matter that much. I just want to take care of my horse. He’s had three surgeries to repair bone chips in his knees. He’s fragile, but he’s doing really well since returning from Dubai. And that’s the way we want to keep it, with our main goal now being the Breeders’ Cup.”

Navarro said X Y Jet remained in Dubai for an extra nine days after the Golden Shaheen, ironically in the care of Chad Summers, who trains his nemesis, Mind Your Biscuits.

“He stayed back over there for more than a week along with Mind Your Biscuits, and it proved to be a great idea not rushing him right home,” Navarro said. “He then got a month off here without a saddle on his back before returning to training. And in his first work back, he went in 46 and change. We just want to have some fun with this horse between now and the Breeders’ Cup. He obviously loves Gulfstream Park, so even thought the Smile is no longer a Win and You’re In race, it looks like the perfect spot to bring him back.”