Beyond Smart springs upset in Leematt Stakes
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Owner Donald Brown, Jr.'s claim of well-traveled Beyond Smart for $15,000 out of a race in May at Penn National now looks pretty smart. Just a few starts later, the gelding posted a $47.60 upset victory over graded stakes winner Fast and Accurate in the $100,000 Leematt Stakes for Pennsylvania-breds on Saturday night at Presque Isle Downs.
This was the second career stakes victory for Beyond Smart, a 7-year-old Smart Strike gelding who Brown now co-owns with trainer Tim Girten and Muirfield Farm. He won the 2014 Crowd Pleaser Handicap at Parx. Beyond Smart has made his 39 career starts at 11 different racetracks in three countries - England, Canada, and the U.S., with five states in the latter represented.
Grasshoppin, despite being pressed by favored Fast and Accurate, took the field through tepid early splits of 25.41 seconds for the quarter and 49.50 seconds for the half. Fast and Accurate made his move to poke a head in front through three-quarters in 1:13.89. At that point, Beyond Smart, who saved ground after breaking from the rail under Scott Spieth, still sat seventh. The gelding was given his cue and angled three wide as Fast and Accurate forged his way to a half-length lead in the stretch, still fending off a stubborn Grasshoppin. Beyond Smart rallied to those two and edged clear in the final stages for a three-quarter length victory, with Fast and Accurate holding second by a neck over the closing Bern' James Bern. It was another 1 3/4 lengths to the fading Grasshoppin.
The final time for the mile on Presque Isle's all-weather surface was 1:38.09.
Earlier on the card, Rose Tree rallied in deep stretch to take the $100,000 Northern Fling Stakes for statebred fillies and mares.
Allowed to settle early by jockey Andrew Wolfsont, Rose Tree ($16.80) was ninth at the quarter pole, and a little less than five lengths behind in a fairly compact field. She rallied widest of all in the lane to strike the lead in the final strides, winning by 1 3/4 lengths going away. The final time for the mile was 1:37.37.
War Baby edged favored Imply, who briefly held the lead in the stretch, by a neck for second.
Rose Tree, trained by Jonathan Sheppard for Buttonwood Farm, was making her first start since finishing seventh in last December's Tropical Park Oaks at Gulfstream Park. The Harlan's Holiday filly was a minor stakes winner as a juvenile in 2016.