Horse Profile: Whistlejacket

Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Scouting Report

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

As the only Group 1 winner in the field, with high speed that hasn’t quite lasted over stiffer tracks, Whistlejacket makes a lot of sense on the cutback at Del Mar.

Training legend Aidan O’Brien has yet to win this race, but his five previous runners were not up to Whistlejacket’s standard. The nearest one to his level, the multiple Group 1-placed filly So Perfect, was also the only one to factor when third in 2018.

Whistlejacket has inspired high hopes as a full brother to Little Big Bear, the European champion two-year-old of 2022. Sire No Nay Never, the 2014 Turf Sprint runner-up, furnished O’Brien’s Juvenile Fillies Turf star Meditate (2022) as well as last year’s Juvenile Turf runner-up Mountain Bear and Turf Sprint third Aesop’s Fables. Whistlejacket’s female line descends from Hall of Famer All Along, who was just denied in the inaugural Turf in 1984.

Commanding about $634,000 as a Tattersalls October yearling, Whistlejacket was upset at even-money in his April 21 Curragh debut. He scampered to the lead in a six-furlong maiden, but tired on soft-to-heavy ground and settled for second to Cowardofthecounty (who’s no world-beater, but he did win a French Group 3).

Whistlejacket thrived when shortening up to five furlongs for the First Flier S. Also on soft going back at the Curragh, he rolled by 3 3/4 lengths as the odds-on favorite from Arizona Blaze.

That made Whistlejacket odds-on for the “Win and You’re In” Norfolk (G2) at Royal Ascot, where he wound up a close fourth to Shareholder. In the vanguard on the stands’ side, he got a bit outpaced at one stage and wandered around briefly before staying on again. Perhaps it was just inexperience in his first try going a quicker five furlongs, but he didn’t look anything like he did at the Curragh.

Whistlejacket was more in his element back up to six furlongs on Newmarket’s July Course. Showing speed on the good-to-soft going in the July (G2), he only pulled away with authority in that final furlong. Jockey Ryan Moore commented that he was still a big colt who raced greenly at times.

The most interesting of his beaten rivals in the July, third-placer Aomori City (Juvenile Turf), came back to win the Vintage (G2). July second Billboard Star and fifth Electrolyte have also had their moments.

Whistlejacket tried to emulate brother Little Big Bear in the Phoenix (G1), but a pace war with Arizona Blaze set it up for the filly Babouche to whizz past. Once again, Whistlejacket found six furlongs at the Curragh a shade beyond him, even on good-to-firm, and he checked in second. Babouche’s final time of 1:09.33 is historically fast, almost as fast as veterans went (1:09.16) in the Phoenix Sprint (G3) on the same day.

Coming right back eight days later in the Prix Morny (G1), Whistlejacket exploited his inside post to score a front-running victory in the “Win and You’re In.” He had no difficulty seeing out about six furlongs on an easier track like Deauville, striding out well to fend off Rashabar, who was stuck wider.

Rashabar, previously the shock winner of the Coventry (G2), went on to finish second in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) on Arc Day. Morny third Daylight was later runner-up in the Cheveley Park (G1) to Lake Victoria (Juvenile Fillies Turf).

“He’s a very fast horse – a typical No Nay Never, very quick,” O’Brien said. “Ryan said the same – he had all the guns all the way.”

The six-furlong Middle Park (G1) on soft ground over Newmarket’s Rowley Course was a different story, and again it appeared as though his stamina was exposed in tougher conditions. Shadow of Light stormed four lengths clear of Whistlejacket and then boosted the form when coming back to complete the prestigious double in the Dewhurst (G1). Moore believed that Whistlejacket wasn’t helped by the race flow in the Middle Park, as he might have preferred to roll on faster instead of prompting the leader. Even so, it’s difficult to envision how he could have outlasted Shadow of Light in the circumstances.

A turning five furlongs on a firm surface will be his sharpest test so far. That’s one possible question for the consistently high-class colt, along with how he might deal with the speed of Japanese record-setter Ecoro Sieg. Yet his abundant class demands respect.