Smiling Tiger wins Bing Crosby at Del Mar
Bing Crosby Thoroughbred race is named after the former and late member of the Board of Directors of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club at Del Mar, California. The Bing Crosby Handicap race takes place at the Del Mar Racecourse every year. It is a Grade I race which is open for Thoroughbred horses of age 3 and above. This year, the competition was held on the first of August.
This was the 8th DMR in which the colts competed for $250,000 over six furlongs. The horses which were a part of this race had amongst them the seven-year-old Grade 1 winner and the three-year-old Smiling Tiger (winner of the race). Other horses included E Z’s Gentleman, Sky Cape, Scenic Blast, El Brujo and My Summer Slew.
The most interesting part about this race was how the 3-year-old Smiling Tiger took over the more experienced seven-year-old Cost of Freedom. This victorious colt weighed 115 pounds and finished the six furlong in 1 minute and 9.21 seconds. He was sent off with the odds of 7-1 at fourth pick who gave back $17.80, $7.20 and $4 for a successful bet. Scenic Blast, the first runner up was 3¼ ahead of E Z’s Gentleman pay back money of $6.40 and $4.20 as the 7-1 third pick. Smiling Tiger set splits of 00:22:2/5 and 00:44:3/5. Second runners up Cost of Freedom jumped in the air just when the gate opened and that is what cost him the race because he fell back. Scenic Blast took advantage of the space left by the Cost of Freedom, but could not overtake the eventual winner. My Summer Slew was withdrawn after which Sky Cape and El Brujo completed the order under the wire.
The winner, Smiling Tiger is owned by Alan Klein and Philip Lebherz. He was bred in Kentucky and has made two sale appearances as a yearling, and was sold at $40,000 in Washington in 2008. He gave a pair of impressive performances at the Golden Gate Fields, where he won his career debut race by six lengths and lost in the Fog S. by 8 lengths. His performance improved in the next competition where he was the second runners up and just lagged by two lengths behind Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike) in the Best Pal S. (G2). He filled that same spot in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) last September. Tiger’s earnings were boosted to $333,864 and his line now reads 7-4-0-3, after he made his grass debut at Harry Henson where he came in the third position again. He is considered to be a special horse by his trainer Jeff Bonde and gives the horse all the credit of winning his first trained Grade 1 horse. Jeff is also accredited to have produced horses of other grades that have previously taken on the race course fields victoriously.
The seven years old Grade I horse weighed 122 pounds and was untouchable in the Los Angeles Handicap (Grade III) while clocking a six-furlong cushion track time of 1:08:49. According to experts, Cost of Freedom was left at the last position when six horses took part at the Polytrack. He was not controlled by the jockey very well and was allowed to do what he wanted to which is why the horse blobbed into the air at the beginning of the race. The horse had no answer to his earlier hurriedness when the pacesetter started pulling away. He was faced by Smiling Tiger for the first time in his career. After chasing the leader, he tried in the stretch to finish fifth but was beaten by 8¾ lengths.
It was Scenic Blast’s first race on a synthetic track and the performance was commendable. He trailed by 2 lengths as he took up a chase in the stretch with strong encouragement and ran past E Z’s Gentleman but could not sway ahead of Smiling Tiger. He has been a Group I winner in Great Britain and Australia and weighs about 121 pounds and is 6 years old. Various sports analyst claim that after this race, he regained his confidence that was lost during the three consecutive races in which he was injured and bled profusely.
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