Get Smokin looking to avoid another speed duel
ELMONT, N.Y. – In last month’s Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland, Get Smokin and Somelikeithotbrown dueled each other into defeat with a cutthroat speed battle up front that ended with Somelikeithotbrown finishing seventh and Get Smokin eighth.
Last Saturday, Somelikeithotbrown rebounded with a victory in the Grade 2 Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico. This Saturday, Get Smokin will attempt to do the same in the $100,000 Seek Again Stakes at Belmont Park.
This is the inaugural running of the Seek Again, named for a two-time graded stakes winner trained by Bill Mott for Juddmonte Farms who won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby in 2013. The race could be used as a stepping-stone to the Grade 3, $200,000 Poker Stakes on June 20.
While Get Smokin is typically forwardly placed in his races, trainer Tom Bush said he didn’t expect Junior Alvarado to get engaged in a speed duel in the Maker’s Mark, which appeared to have other speed such as Somelikeithotbrown and Flying Scotsman.
“I can’t believe how wrong that race went at Keeneland,” Bush said Thursday. “I never dreamed we’d go out there like that. I just wrote it off. He doesn’t have to be ridden like that, I don’t believe. Hopefully we’ll have a little different tack this go.”
Alvarado will ride Get Smokin back on Saturday in a race that does not appear to have much early speed.
“We don’t look like we’re going to have tons of pressure,” Bush said. “Hopefully, it’ll go differently.”
The Seek Again drew a pretty deep field for a listed stakes with a $100,000 purse. Delaware won a similar race as this at Aqueduct in April, the $100,000 Danger’s Hour, and is back again. He is trained by Chad Brown, who brings Flavius back to the races in this spot.
Flavius won the $700,000 Tourist Mile Stakes at Kentucky Downs last September and was beaten three-quarters of a length when second in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit at Del Mar in November.
In his only start this year, Flavius finished fourth, beaten a length by Hit the Road, in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in March.
Decorated Invader, beaten a head by Get Smokin in the Grade 2 Hill Prince here last summer, will try Get Smokin again in the Seek Again. Decorated Invader finished third in the Danger’s Hour, 3 3/4 lengths behind Delaware.
“I was disappointed with his first race,” said Christophe Clement, who trains Decorated Invader. “I didn’t think it was a very smooth race. He was a little difficult to ride on the turn. Junior [Alvarado] could not use him at all. By the time he started to run the race was over.”
With Alvarado on Get Smokin, Joel Rosario rides Decorated Invader.
The field is completed by Tell Your Daddy and Olympic Runner, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the $100,000 Elusive Quality Stakes here on April 24, Epic Dreamer, Tiberius Mercurius, and Olympic Runner.