Navarro oozes confidence before Shancelot's Breeders' Cup run
Swift sophomore Shancelot continues to give trainer Jorge Navarro confidence that he will be able win Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint, a race in which his conditioner placed second in 2015 with the late Private Zone.
Shancelot, a son of Shanghai Bobby, left Barn 7 to jogged one lap and gallop another at just past 7 a.m. PT.
“I love my chances,” Navarro said. “This is the second time I’ve been this confident. The last time was with X Y Jet in Dubai this year and we won the (Dubai Golden) Shaheen."
Shancelot enters off a narrow defeat to Omaha Beach in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1). He also faded late in Saratoga's H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1).
But the "cool, quiet horse to be around," as Navarro says, started his career 3-for-3, which includes a romping win in the Amsterdam (G2) in his stakes debut.
"Once he sees the gate, he transforms into a beast, just like Private Zone used to," Navarro said. "He just wants to get in there."
Shancelot debuted Feb. 16 in maiden special weight company at Gulfstream Park, where he edged out the future Kentucky Derby runner Bodexpress.
“He’s a sprinter and we’ve always known he was one, so when we won at first asking, we knew he wasn’t a Derby horse," Navarro said. "So I told the owners to keep him sound and point to the big races at the end of the year.
"We knew with how he ran first out and how easily he was doing it, that he was a serious horse. He doesn’t act like a sprinter. He’s very laid back, but when you take him outside and show him the gate, he’s ready to fight.”
Based on the morning line, Shancelot's primary competition comes from older horses Mitole and Imperial Hint.
Mitole walked the shedrow Wednesday, a morning after breezing and easy 3/8 of a mile in 37 2/5 over the Santa Anita main track. The son of Eskendereya has shown immense sprinter and miler speed while continuing to impress onlookers, including assistant trainer Scott Blasi, who has watched him develop into a three-time Greade 1-winning earner of $2 million. This season, the bay colt has won five of six races.
“He looks good,” Blasi said. “I’ll put it to you this way. He’s the fastest one from pole to pole that we have right now, but it’s hard to rank him against some of the best ones we’ve had. Majesticperfection was really a talented fast horse like him, but he got hurt early and we never got to see what he could do."
Raymond Mamone’s Imperial Hint jogged and galloped a mile apiece Wednesday at Santa Anita.
“He got a little rank there. It’s good that he didn’t run off. He was turning his head to the inside, because he wanted to go,” trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. said. “It’s him. That’s what he does when he’s fresh and has a day off and then just jogs the next day. He’ll test you.”
Imperial Hint, who finished second in the 2017 Sprint at Del Mar and third in last year’s renewal at Churchill Downs, will be ridden by Javier Castellano Saturday. The Hall of Fame jockey has been aboard ‘The Little Rocket’ for all four of his Grade 1 victories.
“He has won for [Trevor] McCarthy, Julian Pimentel, [Antonio] Gallardo, but it seems like the smaller the jockey, the better he sits on the horse,” Carvajal said. “You don’t want a taller jockey. It’s a little more comfortable, especially when he starts pulling. That’s my way of thinking. I could be wrong, but Javier fits just right in there.”