Casablanca Smile to make a return in the La Prevoyante Stakes at Calder for the second time in one year
The 2011 Calder racing season which was supposed to go on for another month is going to close a month earlier on 2 December, 2011, but it doesn’t mean the two important races at the back end of the Calder season will be ignored.
The two turf grade 3 races will go as plan, the Grade 3 $150,000 La Prevoyante and $100,000 Tropical Turf handicaps. The 1 ½ mile La Prevoyante will have the unique distinction of being run twice this year.
The last edition of the race was run at Calder on 2 January, 2011, and it was won by Changing Skies under jockey Javier Castellano. In the process Changing Skies defeated Casablanca Smile in second and Tarrip in third while he ran down the distance of one
and a half miles in 2 minutes and 27.91 seconds.
The 6-year-old Bill Mott trained mare has been lightly raced this year with a La Prevoyante Stakes win and a fifth place finish in the Grade 3 Very One Stakes at Gulfstream Park on 20 January.
Changing Skies will not be returning to Calder to defend her title but the second placed Casablanca Smile will return to Calder to make her second start in the part 2 of La Prevoyante Stakes over got beaten by Changing Skies by 3 ¾ lengths.
The 5-year-old Claude R. McGaughey III trained mare, Casablanca Smile, hasn’t raced for 11 months and her last outing was at Calder race course in the Grade 3 La Prevoyante Stakes.
“We planned on giving her a while off after the La Prevoyante earlier this year,” explained McGaughey. “But then she had some cannon bone bruising this spring and came down with a foot abscess when turned out after that. We had her in last month at Belmont
in a mile race as a prep for this one but she wasn’t quite right the morning of the race so we had to scratch her.”
Casablanca Smile turned in her final workout ahead of the La Prevoyante Stakes on 29 November, 2011, where she went half a mile in 48 seconds.
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