Smiling Tiger will defend his Bing Crosby title against Euroears and Amazombie at Del Mar on 31 July
Hold that Tiger’s colt, Smiling Tiger is back at Del Mar to defend his title in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes which will go underway on 31 July at Del Mar’s synthetic surface.
The 4-year-old chestnut colt is coming off a fantastic victory in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap over Cushion Track. The seven furlong dash was held at Hollywood Park on 3 July, 2011, and it reeled in 8 horses 3 year olds and beyond.
It was an easy race for the Jeff Bonde trained colt, as he broke out of the gate and led soon after furlong mark, with 1 ½ furlong to go jockey Joel Rosario quickened Smiling Tiger to optimum speed and hit the wire 3 ¼ lengths before the runner up Camp
Victory.
Among the eight at Del Mar for Bing Crosby is the older Euroears, who is coming off a pretty good run himself. His last racing endeavour took him to the U.A.E to contest in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan.
The 7-year-old chestnut horse led the race, but maintained neutral speed throughout the race, soon got take over by Rocket Man. The Bob Baffert trained Euroears under M E Smith gave up the lead easily but made amends in the end and covered good ground, fell
short by 2 ¼ lengths to finish second.
Euroears will pose a threat to Smiling Tiger in defending his title in the Bing Crosby.
Another horse that has the potential to snatch it from Smiling Tiger is the 5-year-old bay gelding Amazombie. The Bill Spawr trained runner was the favourite to win the Triple Bend this year, but finished a non threatening third at the end.
The Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap winner, Amazombie will look to redeem himself in the upcoming Grade 1 Bing Crosby.
Smiling Tiger and his connections will be wary of the threat that these older, experienced horses pose, but the colt is no pushover as he has won eight times out of sixteen life time career starts and, boosted up his earnings after his previous win to $1,149,353.
The lineup for Bing Crosby will fill up with the inclusion of the 2010 winner of the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Kinsale King. Trained by Carl O’Callaghan for Sheehy LLC , the six-year-old bay gelding has had a quite 2011 and, appeared only in one
race.
His only win came in his only start in 2011, an Allowance race over at a distance of 6 furlongs. The race fell victim to three early scratches and, became a three horse race, with Kinsale King winning the race by ¾ lengths.
It is going to be a tough predicament for trainer Jeff Blonde and Smart Tiger, but the recent form suggests that the colt will go down fighting before he gives up his title.
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