X Y Jet Provides Star Power to Sunshine Millions

After his most successful racing season, X Y Jet will make his 2019 debut at his favorite track and in a familiar race when Gulfstream Park hosts the Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes Jan. 19.

The $100,000 Sprint is one of four Sunshine Millions races for older Florida-breds scheduled on Saturday's card, which also includes the $150,000 Turf Stakes, $150,000 Filly and Mare Turf Stakes, and $200,000 Classic Stakes.

X Y Jet will attempt to improve on his 6-4-1 record from a dozen starts at Gulfstream as he looks to win the six-furlong test for a third time. He scored a clear victory in the race in 2016, missed it in 2017, then rolled to a 5 1/2-length score last year.

In both 2016 and 2018, Rockingham Ranch and Gelfenstein Farm's X Y Jet also finished second in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored by Gulf News (G1) at Meydan. After last year's Sunshine Millions, X Y Jet rolled to a victory in the Pelican Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs before getting caught at the wire by late-running Mind Your Biscuits in the Golden Shaheen, losing by a head.

While that loss crushed the connections of X Y Jet, trainer Jorge Navarro is plotting a third trip to the desert for the 7-year-old Kantharos  gelding, beginning with Saturday's test that has drawn six rivals.

"The way he's training, I don't think we're going to have an issue with him the remainder of the year," said Navarro, whose veteran sprinter has had a series of six breezes at Palm Meadows, including two bullet five-furlong moves in 1:00 flat Jan 5 and Jan 12 in preparation for the Sprint. "He worked great Saturday. The way he was hitting the ground was perfect. He's getting better. I'm very pleased with the way he's coming to the race."

X Y Jet won three of four starts last year, the one setback coming in Dubai. He closed the year with a win in the Smile Sprint Stakes (G3) in June at Gulfstream. Navarro hoped to have him back for the TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Churchill Downs but ruled him out of the race the day before entries were taken because he didn't like how he came out of his final workout.

Navarro said he's comfortable with giving X Y Jet time off.

"I have done nothing but right with that horse. There are knockers who say he should be retired. Up to this point, he's doing super. If anything comes up with him, he'll be retired," Navarro said. "Right now, he wants to be a racehorse."

Oddly enough, the horse who reached the wire second in the Smile Sprint, West Point Thoroughbreds' Reason to Soar, also will be making his first start since that effort, in which he was disqualified to fifth for interference when he swerved out. The 5-year-old Soaring Empire gelding is perfect in his other four starts at Gulfstream.

"He performed very well," said trainer George Weaver. "What he did to get disqualified, we really don't know why he did that. Maybe he got spooked by something. We don't have concrete answers why that happened.

"Despite him bearing out, the horse did hit the wire second, and we believe he was the second-best horse in that race. You don't like to interfere with anybody, but the horse he interfered with was kind of empty, anyway. It was frustrating to lose the purse and the stakes-placing for the horse in a graded stakes."

Weaver said Reason to Soar has raced well off a layoff.

"When he came back off a layoff last year, he won a Florida-bred (optional claiming allowance). In that case, he's just a superior horse," Weaver said. "The horse has gotten more professional as he's gone along. I really feel he'll be ready to run his race."

In the other three Sunshine Millions races:

Grade 3 winner Mr. Jordan—who has won seven stakes, including the past three editions of the Millions Classic Preview Stakes at Gulfstream Park West—will look to secure the elusive Sunshine Millions Classic. 

David Melin, Leon Ellman, and Laurie Plesa's Mr. Jordan, who like X Y Jet is a 7-year-old son of Kantharos, finished second in both the 2016 and 2018 Sunshine Millions Classic. He has just one victory at Gulfstream Park from 17 starts at the track.

In both of his second-place finishes, Mr. Jordan held the lead in deep stretch before coming up short late in the 1 1/8-mile race. Trainer Eddie Plesa has confidence the distance won't be an issue Saturday.

"A mile and an eighth doesn't concern me that much now as it would have in the past," Plesa said. "The reason for that is when he won the race at Gulfstream Park West and got up to win by a nose, if you watched the gallop-out, he was awesome. … It appeared like he was just getting in gear."

In the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf, Canada's champion female turf horse of 2017, Starship Jubilee, will look to defend her 2018 win when she pressed the pace before scoring by a length. In September, she earned the third grade 2 score of her career, taking the Canadian Stakes Presented by the Japan Racing Association (G2T) at Woodbine.

Blue Heaven Farm's Starship Jubilee, a 6-year-old Indy Wind mare, will be making her 2019 debut. On Jan. 12, she worked four furlongs in :46.78 on the dirt at Gulfstream, second-fastest of 108 moves at the distance that day.

"She's trained really well, and she's coming into this race in good order," said trainer Kevin Attard. "She had a good blowout the other day in 46-and-change and has continued to kind of progress since that (last) race."

Starship Jubilee will break from the outside in the 1 1/16-mile turf race that has drawn 13 entries.

"She lays it down each and every time," Attard said. "She gives it her best, and I could never ask for any more from her. She's been real good to us, and I'm hoping she's going to reward the new owners this weekend."

In the Sunshine Millions Turf, at 1 1/16 miles, Big Changes will shoot for the most lucrative stakes win of his career. Last year, he won three stakes at three tracks during a five-race win streak.

Steve Landers Racing's Big Changes, a 7-year-old Midshipman  gelding, is trained by Brad Cox.

Entries: Sunshine Millions Turf S.

Gulfstream Park, Saturday, January 19, 2019, Race 6

• STK
• 1 1/16m
• Turf
• $150,000
• 4 yo's & up
• 2:15 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Archer Road (FL)	Jeffrey Sanchez	121	Stanley I. Gold	6/1
2	2Second Mate (FL)	Jose L. Ortiz	117	Jorge R. Abreu	8/1
3	3Big Changes (FL)	Javier Castellano	121	Brad H. Cox	8/5
4	4Driven by Thunder (FL)	John R. Velazquez	117	Todd A. Pletcher	8/1
5	5Expected Ruler (FL)	Miguel Angel Vasquez	119	Peter R. Walder	12/1
6	6Class and Cash (FL)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	121	Jane Cibelli	5/2
7	7He's Bankable (FL)	Chris Landeros	117	Mark E. Casse	15/1
8	8Salute the Colonel (FL)	Luis Saez	117	Joseph F. Orseno	10/1
9	9Chiseled (FL)	Miguel Angel Vasquez	117	Peter R. Walder	10/1

Entries: Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf S.

Gulfstream Park, Saturday, January 19, 2019, Race 10

• STK
• 1 1/16m
• Turf
• $150,000
• 4 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 4:15 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Thinkin Cowtown (FL)	Jose A. Batista	119	Gary G. Jackson	20/1
2	2Picara (FL)	John R. Velazquez	121	Todd A. Pletcher	8/1
3	3Treasure for Gold (FL)	Chris Landeros	119	Todd A. Pletcher	15/1
4	4Warranty (FL)	Jose L. Ortiz	117	Michael J. Maker	10/1
5	5Weekend Mischief (FL)	Jeffrey Sanchez	119	Stanley I. Gold	30/1
6	6Florida Fuego (FL)	Emisael Jaramillo	117	David Fawkes	15/1
7	7Surprise Wedding (FL)	Nik Juarez	119	David Fawkes	20/1
8	8Mrs. Ramona G. (FL)	Luis Saez	119	Jeremiah C. Englehart	6/1
9	9Shanghai Starlet (FL)	Edgar S. Prado	119	Todd A. Pletcher	15/1
10	10Southern Sis (FL)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	117	Mark E. Casse	8/1
11	11Bitacora (FL)	Miguel Angel Vasquez	117	Peter R. Walder	15/1
12	12Madame Uno (FL)	Romero Ramsay Maragh	117	David Fawkes	6/1
13	13Starship Jubilee (FL)	Javier Castellano	123	Kevin Attard	9/5

Entries: Sunshine Millions Classic S.

Gulfstream Park, Saturday, January 19, 2019, Race 11

• STK
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 4 yo's & up
• 4:47 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Dalmore (FL)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	119	Anthony T. Quartarolo	4/1
2	2Forevamo (FL)	Javier Castellano	121	Steven M. Asmussen	6/1
3	3Transistor (FL)	Leonel Reyes	117	Juan Alvarado	30/1
4	4Mr. Jordan (FL)	Jose L. Ortiz	121	Edward Plesa, Jr.	3/1
5	5Weisser (FL)	Jeffrey Sanchez	117	Stanley I. Gold	15/1
6	6Noble Drama (FL)	Nik Juarez	121	David Fawkes	8/1
7	7Jay's Way (FL)	Luis Saez	119	Armando De la cerda	10/1
8	8Souper Tapit (FL)	John R. Velazquez	117	Mark E. Casse	2/1