Smart Sting upsets Anne’s Beauty and Inglorious to win her first graded stakes win in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes at Woodbine
The Stronach Stable’s homebred 3-year-old filly, Smart Sting, posted her first graded stakes' win over four other fillies at Woodbine on 25 September, upsetting the favourites, Anne’s Beauty and Inglorious, to win the Grade 3 $248,448 Selene Stakes.
It was a race that lacked speed, and the compact group of 5 three-year-old fillies seemed content with a slow pace.
Aboard Smart Sting, jockey Eurico Da Silva kept a reserved pace but the pair was constantly under threat from the ever approaching Anne’s Beauty.
In the 1 1/16 mile test, the morning line favourties, Anne’s Beauty and the Queen’s Plate winner, Inglorious, loomed behind Smart Sting, but the Roger Attfield trained filly broke away and was 2 ½ lengths away at the furlong maker.
The daughter of Smart Strike, out of the champion turf mare, Perfect Sting, by Red Ransom, made her first start on Poly Track in her seventh career start, as she raced on grass in the last 6 races.
This was Smart Sting’s second win of the 2011 season, after he maiden special weight win in her first attempt at Woodbine back in 2010, over a mile.
She won an allowance race in her first start of the 2011 season over the same distance, and went on to nail the race with a winning time of 1 minute and 34.95 seconds.
Since then, Smart Sting has had 4 starts before the Selene Stakes, and she finished on the board thrice with two third place finishes and a runner-up position.
The elated winning trainer, Roger Attfield, said that Smart Sting had been preparing and running well on Poly Track, so they wanted to give it a shot, but it was highly unlikely to upset Inglorious and Anne’s Beauty the way she did.
Smart Sprint forged ahead to win the race by 3 ½ lengths, as she covered 1 1/16 miles in a solid 1 minute and 43.73 seconds.
Smart Sting was coming off a second place finish behind Anne’s Beauty in the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen on grass on 27 August at Woodbine, as she upped her earnings to $263,442 after receiving the winner’s share of $145,860.
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