Smile Sprint Handicap – Apriority set to make amends at Calder to provide David Fawkes with a twofer
The Grade 2, $350,000 Smile Sprint Handicap, has produced winners who went on to achieve great heights in their racing careers.
Not too long ago, two out of the last three winners at Calder’s race course went on to win the Eclipse Awards in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
Those two winners were Benny the Bull and Big Drama.
The 2002 winner of the Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap, Orientate, met the same fate.
Both Orientate and Big Drama landed the Breeders’ Cup sprint.
Despite having such a rich history of sprinters participating in the race and using it as a springboard to accomplish victories in other prestigious races, the Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap has yet to achieve Grade 1 status.
However, the Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap has the status of a Breeders’ Cup challenge race and the speedsters participating in this edition of the 2011 Smile Handicap will earn an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup sprint this year at Churchill Downs.
The 2011 edition of the Smile Sprint Handicap has drawn a solid line up, but among the leading candidates is David Fawkes’s Apriority.
David Fawkes also trained Big Drama.
Big Drama's stable mate, Apriority, has had an impressive run in this year’s races.
The four-year-old colt finished second, thrice, in three major stake's races this year, but trainer David Fawkes is still not impressed and ranks the colt as No.2 in his opinion.
David Fawkes’s Big Drama went on to win the Smile Sprint Handicap and spring boarded himself to Breeders’ Cup sprint challenge win, so it seems that Apriority has some big shoes to fill to become David Fawkes number one.
The Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap will be run on a six furlong track, all dirt on the “Summit of Speed” day at Calder race course.
Apriority is certainly the favourite to win the race while Big Drama takes a rest from racing.
Apriority’s two losses in this year’s stake's races were agonizingly narrow losses, one by a nose and another by a head.
Apriority has not started since his heartbreaking defeat by Aikenite at Churchill Downs in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Sprint.
On July 9, 2011, at Calder race course, Apriority will face a tough line-up, including Giant Ryan and 120 pound high weight, Noble Promise.
Apriority will be carrying 118 pounds and will be looking to hand his trainer a back to back win in the Smile Sprint Handicap.
David Fawkes knows the Calder track very well. In 2000, he sent One Carats, who broke the track record and set a new one of 1 minute and 8.95 seconds.
David Fawkes will be hoping that lady luck smiles on Apriority on 9th July at Calder race course, as luck eluded the four-year-old colt in his last two starts.
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