Keith Desormeaux Sends Out My Boy Jack in Sham Stakes

Keith Desormeaux's résumé is well established at this point, a handful of years after the likes of Texas Red  and Exaggerator  burst onto the scene at racing's top level.

The trainer has shown that finding a standout young colt does not necessitate a massive monetary investment at a sale. Texas Red—who won the 2014 Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), 2015 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2), and earned more than $1.7 million—was purchased for $17,000. Exaggerator—who won three grade 1 races, including a classic in the Preakness Stakes, and earned more than $3.5 million—was a $110,000 buy.

It's a point of pride for the 50-year-old horseman, who will enter Don't Tell My Wife Stables and Monomoy Stables' My Boy Jack, another bargain sale purchase, in the $100,000 Sham Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park Jan. 6. With the postponement of the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack, the Sham is the first 3-year-old race in the nation that offers points (10-4-2-1 to the top four finishers) in the "Road to the Kentucky Derby" standings.

"It's so much more fun to go into these races with a $20,000 horse," Desormeaux said of the Creative Cause  colt, who brought that price at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale. "I've always believed you could find a top-class stakes horse without spending a boatload of money, and I've proven it. A lot of the big sellers may not like it, but it can be done.

"Now, when I sell one of those Exaggerator babies, you really need to pay a lot of money," Desormeaux added with a laugh. "You're gonna really have to open that wallet."

My Boy Jack is a different case than some of Desormeaux's other top young colts in recent years, however, as he found his early success on grass, but the motivation to go to turf wasn't for the surface.

The dark bay with the small white star just above his eyes began his career in a five-furlong dirt race in June at Santa Anita, where he finished a far-back sixth, but Desormeaux knew the colt needed to go much longer, and the only races at that time of year around two turns in Southern California are on the grass. My Boy Jack showed immediate improvement July 1 in a one-mile grass race at Santa Anita, where he finished second, and he came in second again in the first long race for 2-year-olds on the Del Mar turf July 30.

"The only reason I put him on turf in the first place is because the turf is the first surface offered with the distance. Surface was secondary," Desormeaux said of My Boy Jack, who then finished second a third time in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes Sept. 3 and then broke through for his lone win in the Zuma Beach Stakes back on grass at Santa Anita Oct. 9. "I jumped all over that race at Santa Anita in July and he obviously took to the turf. The first route race at Del Mar was also in July. There wasn't a dirt route race offered in California until late August, and we won that race with a horse named Ayacara."

Ahead of the Breeders' Cup, Desormeaux even considered cross-entering in the Juvenile Turf (G1T) and the Juvenile (G1), but decided to stick with the surface My Boy Jack was proven on.

"I suggested to the ownership that we might want to cross-enter, because he trains just as good on dirt than he does on grass," the trainer said. "But the turf is what got him there, so why change him now?"

Desormeaux was further encouraged by the colt's overall talent after his performance in the Juvenile Turf against some of the best 2-year-old grass horses in the world. My Boy Jack was four-wide in the first turn, four- or five-wide through the entirety of the second turn, and was looming in contention late on the outside before he flattened out in the stretch and finished seventh, just three lengths behind winner Mendelssohn.

"He was wide the whole way and made a strong, strong move on the far turn and through to the stretch," Desormeaux said. "I think we checked out the Trakus deal and he got beat three lengths, but he ran 56 feet farther than the winner. You take that away and you're in front."

That success on turf, however, may not translate for the one-mile Sham on dirt, but this is the time of year to figure that out. Two other horses in the Sham—including the colt who figures to be the commanding favorite—are also getting felt out by their trainer. Karl Watson, Mike Pegram, and Paul Weitman's McKinzie and Phoenix Thoroughbred III's Mourinho will be sent out from the powerful barn of trainer Bob Baffert.

Mourinho, who has finished second in back-to-back stakes (the Speakeasy and the grade 3 Bob Hope), was initially tabbed to get a trip to Oaklawn Park for the Jan. 15 Smarty Jones Stakes, but Baffert said air travel to Arkansas was not available.

McKinzie brings in an undefeated record into the Sham, even though he hit the wire second, behind stablemate Solomini, in the Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity (G1) before Solomini was disqualified for interfering with third-place finisher Instilled Regard.

BALAN: McKinzie Wins Los Al Futurity Via Solomini's DQ

And what did the Hall of Fame trainer take away from McKinzie's effort at Los Alamitos?

"He got beat by Solomini," Baffert said with a laugh. "But Solomini is a nice horse, and the horse who ran third is a nice horse."

The Futurity could also be viewed as encouraging for McKinzie with some added context. Baffert felt the Street Sense  colt got a little "keen" with jockey Mike Smith in the backstretch and had to move early in the second turn when Instilled Regard made his closing bid. That set up a winning trip for Solomini—until he came over in the stretch to foul Instilled Regard, according to the Los Alamitos stewards—but it was also notable that despite the pressure, McKinzie never gave in on the inside, even after he was headed by Instilled Regard at the top of the long Los Alamitos stretch.

"I think he was keen because of the blinkers, so we're taking the blinkers off," Baffert said. "But he wasn't letting that horse by him. We're learning about these horses every race. You run them and you learn about them."

The only other stakes winner in the field is Godolphin homebred City Plan, from the barn of trainer Eoin Harty. Another son of Street Sense, City Plan finished a far-back seventh in his graded debut Sept. 30 in the FrontRunner Stakes (G1) and shipped north to earn his stakes stripes with a score in the Dec. 2 Gold Rush Stakes on the Golden Gate Fields all-weather main track.

Entries: Sham S. (G3)

Santa Anita Park, Saturday, January 06, 2018, Race 5

• Grade III
• 1m
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 3 yo
• 2:34 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1My Boy Jack (KY)	Kent J. Desormeaux	120	J. Keith Desormeaux	12/1
2	2Here Is Happy (OH)	Joseph Talamo	120	Craig Anthony Lewis	20/1
3	3All Out Blitz (KY)	Tyler Baze	120	Simon Callaghan	10/1
4	4Mourinho (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Bob Baffert	4/1
5	5Shivermetimbers (KY)	Flavien Prat	120	Jerry Hollendorfer	7/2
6	6McKinzie (KY)	Mike E. Smith	124	Bob Baffert	3/5
7	7City Plan (KY)	Tyler Conner	122	Eoin G. Harty	20/1