Abderian victorious in Smile

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-For a jockey who did not ride on Saturday's Breeders' Cup program, Horatio Karamanos still managed a memorable weekend. He won a career-best seven races at Laurel on Saturday, and on Sunday won the $100,000 Smile Handicap at Arlington Park aboard Abderian.

Rallying from off the pace, Abderian ($8.80) ran 5 1-2 furlongs on a yielding turf course in 1:03.53, winning by 1 3-4 lengths over Mighty Beau, the 9-5 favorite. Miners Gamble finished third in the field of nine, which did not include Bop, who was scratched.

Distinctive Mr. B set fractions of 22.45 and 46.03 seconds, but was always under pressure.

Abderian was in mid-pack on the backstretch and rallied wide to reach contention on the turn. Mighty Beau had the lead in early stretch, but Abderian took command in the final furlong pulling away with a wide run.

"When he saw the hole in the stretch, he took off," said Karamanos, a native of Argentina who has been in the United States for 18 months.

Karamons rode Abderian in his last start, a victory in an allowance race/optional claimer at Laurel on Oct. 9.

Owned by Richard Englander and trained by Ben Feliciano, the Irish-bred Abderian has raced in New Jersey and Maryland for most of the year. In his career, the 5-year-old Abderian has won 7 of 22 starts and $159,637.