Horse Profile: Jayarebe

Breeders' Cup Turf Scouting Report

(Editor's note: Originally published in the 2024 BRISnet Breeders' Cup International Report) 

Trainer Brian Meehan has won the Turf twice with relative outsiders, the 10-1 Red Rocks (2006) and 8.50-1 Dangerous Midge (2010), and Jayarebe will try to give him a third. 

As a three-year-old with smart European form, he’s nearer to the Red Rocks profile, although with a couple of material differences. While Red Rocks was proven at both the distance and at Group 1 level, Jayarebe is trying 1 1/2 miles for the first time. And if he’s been keeping top company, it hasn’t been in the season’s marquee events. 

Owned like Dangerous Midge by Iraj Parvizi, Jayarebe is a $175,000 Arqana October yearling purchase. Sire Zoffany, by Dansili, has gotten a range of top performers from sprinter Washington DC to miler Mother Earth and stamina-laden types like Ventura Storm and Fleeting. 

The maternal half of Jayarebe’s pedigree implies that he’ll stay the trip. His dam, Group 3-placed Alakhana, scored her French listed stakes victory going about 1 1/2 miles. By Arc hero Dalakhani, the same sire as two-time Turf winner Conduit, Alakhana is herself out of a Galileo mare.

Overlooked at 16-1 in his Newmarket unveiling at two, Jayarebe stalked and then toppled Godolphin’s odds-on Broadway Act in a seven-furlong novice over the July Course. He was thrown straight into the deep end in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) on Arc Day, but found it too much when tiring to seventh behind Rosallion in stakes-record time. Runner-up Unquestionable came right back to take the Juvenile Turf.

Jayarebe showed much more in his Apr. 17 reappearance in the Feilden S. over Newmarket’s Rowley Mile course. The 11-1 shot raced prominently from the start, struck the front while traveling best of all, and opened up by 3 1/4 lengths on the rising ground. His time for nine furlongs (1:47.41) was marginally quicker than Godolphin’s Ottoman Fleet (1:47.51) when repeating in the Earl of Sefton (G3) one race later. Finishing fourth in the Feilden was Ambiente Friendly, the next-out winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial who was runner-up to City of Troy (Classic) at Epsom and third in the Irish Derby (G1).

Jayarebe stepped up to about 1 5/16 miles for the May 9 Dee S. at Chester, but failed to justify his newfound favoritism. Ballydoyle’s Capulet controlled the pace around the tight circuit and kicked away from the chasing Jayarebe, who wound up third. Meehan and jockey Sean Levey both mentioned that the track didn’t suit him, which would pose a caveat for the long-striding colt at Del Mar. 

But because he was beaten for finishing speed rather than stamina in a steadily-run race, my suspicion is that the race shape was a more determinative factor than the track itself. Capulet beat him to the punch and slowed everything down, arguably taking Jayarebe out of his preferred dynamic. In any event, Jayarebe strikes me as the type who needs to get into his high-cruising rhythm, and that just didn’t happen around Chester. 

The 1 1/4-mile Hampton Court (G3) at Royal Ascot unfolded more to his liking, with a stronger tempo. Asked early to gain position from an outside post, the 7-1 shot tracked a contested pace involving Bellum Justum (the eventual Nashville Derby [G3] winner). Jayarebe drove past Bellum Justum in the stretch and gained an insurmountable advantage over the deep-closing favorite, King’s Gambit. While King’s Gambit was a shade unlucky, Jayarebe kept finding to stave him off by three-quarters of a length. 

The placegetters in the Hampton Court furnish collateral form with Ballydoyle stalwarts Jan Brueghel and Los Angeles. Third-placer Bellum Justum subsequently came within a neck of Jan Brueghel, the unbeaten St Leger (G1) winner and Melbourne Cup (G1) favorite (who was just controversially withdrawn). 

Hampton Court runner-up King’s Gambit has since gone close in two other features, including a near-miss third in the Great Voltigeur (G2) to Los Angeles. Jayarebe has himself collected another form tie-in to Los Angeles, the Irish Derby winner who was third in both the Epsom Derby and Arc. 

Entered against City of Troy in the Eclipse (G1), but scratched due to the soft going, Jayarebe returned to his native France for the Aug. 15 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (G2). Economics was all the rage in his comeback, and Jayarebe made him work for it. Levey had Jayarebe well placed at the head of the main body of the field, behind a tearaway pacemaker, and he got the jump on the favorite. Economics eventually struck top gear to reel Jayarebe in by two lengths, with a six-length gap back to third. That form was boosted when Economics went on to beat Auguste Rodin and Los Angeles in the Irish Champion (G1).

Jayarebe headed back to France for the Oct. 5 Prix Dollar (G2) on Arc weekend, his first attempt versus elders, and prevailed in admirably gutsy fashion. Levey took the early initiative and let him glide forward on ground softer than ideal. Jayarebe appeared vulnerable when he was accosted on both flanks down the lane, but he had more up his sleeve. Repelling Calif and Anmaat, Jayarebe then parried the late thrust of Almaqam by a head. He’d left Almaqam much further behind in their prior start at Deauville, as an indicator of how the conditions here moved that rival up. 

The Dollar has already appreciated in the interim. Anmaat, who tired to fifth after his menacing move, would upset the Champion (G1) in his next start (beating Calandagan, Economics, et al). 

Jayarebe’s forward running style should help him in a tactical renewal at Del Mar. And there’s precedent for horses to win the Turf without previous experience at the distance – e.g., Pebbles (1985), Kalanisi (2000), Johar (2003 dead-heat), Magician (2013), and Bricks and Mortar (2019). Still, we’d know more if Jayarebe had contested a Group 1 this year, instead of brandishing collateral form.