Checking In
… with the 2-year-olds I’m following. Smash, an impressive first-out winner at Hollywood in July, hasn’t worked since July and has had some “setbacks,” trainer Bob Baffert told Steve Andersen. “Some of them got down [to Del Mar] and had setbacks. I didn’t want to push them.” The Smart Strike colt could be sent to Belmont for the fall meet. Trainer Rick Violette reports that Sovereign Default, expected to start in Monday’s Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, is injured and out indefinitely. Typhoon Slew, coming off a nice grass win at Ellis Park earlier this summer, finished third in the With Anticipation Stakes on Friday. The race was won by Soldat, switching from dirt to turf and exiting a second to Wine Police in a Saratoga maiden special last month. “When I asked him at the quarter-pole, whoosh! He really took off,” said rider Alan Garcia. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said the colt could start next in the Pilgrim Breeders’ Cup at Belmont in October and would point to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Much praise for Uncle Mo from Dick Powell: “He was remarkable … anyone that was here that day might say years from now, ‘I was there the day that Uncle Mo broke his maiden.'” If the Debutante at Del Mar holds up, next year’s top 3-year-old filly could be a Californian. The 12-horse race came up tough.
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