Jaycito to miss Derby, aim for Belmont

Last updated: 4/24/11 4:37 PM

Jaycito has run out of time to make the Derby
(Benoit Photos)

The Blood-Horse reported Sunday that Grade 1 Norfolk winner Jaycito, whose road to the
Grade 1 Kentucky Derby has been compromised by
a hoof bruise, will be forced to miss the 137th Run for the Roses.

A distant runner-up to the sidelined Premier Pegasus in
the Grade 2 San Felipe in his March 12 reappearance, Jaycito developed the hoof
bruise a couple of weeks later. Although the Bob Baffert trainee was able to
record a six-furlong work in 1:13 2/5 at Santa Anita on April 2, he exited the
drill with tenderness in the foot.

Baffert decided to scratch him from the April 9 Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and
aim for this past Saturday’s Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland. Yet Jaycito has yet
to turn in a timed work, and the back-up plan didn’t come to fruition.

“He’s not 100 percent,” owner Ahmed Zayat told Steve Haskin of The
Blood-Horse, “and neither Bob nor I would ever run a horse just for the sake
of running.

“I believe he’s a true mile and a quarter horse and he would have shined, but
the Derby is not the end of the world. I want to have a sound, healthy, and fit
horse the rest of the year and we want to have a lot of fun with him.”

“He’s moving forward and the foot is finally healing, but there is no way I
can have him ready to be competitive enough to win the Derby,” Baffert said.

Jaycito will now point for the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 11.

Zayat has another Derby contender in Nehro, a hard-charging runner-up in both
the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby.

Baffert also has Santa Anita Derby winner Midnight Interlude in his arsenal,
and his Grade 2 Rebel victor The Factor could contest the Kentucky Derby as well.