Smart Bid to go against rival Casino Host in the Dixie Stakes
The 2011 Kentucky Derby winning trainer Graham Motion will send out Augustin Stable owned six-year-old horse, Smart Bid to the Grade 2 $300,000 Dixie Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on 19 May, 2012, a race before the Grade 1, $1 million Preakness Stakes, where he will saddle the Kentucky Derby fourth place finisher, Went The Day Well.
Bred in Pennsylvania by George Strawbridge, Smart Bid will head a massive field of 11 in the Dixie Stakes with the overnight favourite tag of 7 to 2.
The race will be run over a distance of 1 1/8 miles on the Pimlico Race Course’s turf track. Edgar Prado will ride Smart Bid, and the duo will break from post number seven.
Edgar Prado has won the Dixie Stakes once before riding Ops Smile back in 1997, while Graham Motion has completed this feat twice in his career, once saddling Dr. Brendler in 2003, and with Better Talk Now in 2006.
Veteran trainer Graham Motion had the Dixie Stakes in mind for the 6 year-old son of Smart Strike for quite some time now.
"He's doing well,” Motion said of Smart Bid, who has run exclusively on turf the last two years. "He's a pretty straightforward horse."
Out of Danzig mare Recording, Smart Strike has twice raced this season, as he kicked off the 2012 campaign with a magnificent win in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap on 25 February, 2012, at about 1 1/8 mile, coupled with Edgar Prado.
Smart Bid defeated Mr. Vegas in second and Dubious Miss in third, while covering the 1 1/8 mile distance in 1 minute and 51.91 seconds.
His second start of the season wasn’t as good as the first one, as Smart Bid fell away to finish seventh in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Handicap also at Fair Grounds Race Course, going 1 1/8 mile again, but this time it was a trouble trip, as Casino Host took the race with the winning time of 1 minute and 50.87 seconds.
The 12 to 1 choice, Casino Host will also race in the Dixie Stakes with the top weight of 124 pounds, while Smart Bid will carry 122 pounds.
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