With Grade 1 chase complete, Smith looking forward to the new year

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Smith will begin his fifth decade of riding when he climbs aboard Forever Poe in Wednesday’s first race at Santa Anita.

“That’s crazy,” he said Sunday morning when reminded of one statistical aspect of his longevity.

What is equally crazy is how well Smith is riding at 54.

Saturday, Smith won a record 217th Grade 1 race in North America on Omaha Beach in the Malibu Stakes on opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. A little more than an hour earlier, Smith tied retired Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey’s mark of 216 Grade 1 wins when Hard Not to Love pulled an upset win in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

It was not long after the races ended Saturday that Smith received a message from Bailey, who lives on the East Coast.

“He sent me a beautiful text,” Smith said. “We didn’t talk on the phone because it was kind of late there. I must have gotten 200 texts; so many people around the country, all over the industry, even overseas. It was pretty neat.

“I answered every one of them. I stayed up to do it.”

Smith had four stakes wins Saturday, his best haul on a single day since a five-bagger on the undercard of the 2017 Belmont Stakes program, which included three Grade 1 wins – Mor Spirit (Met Mile), Songbird (Ogden Phipps Stakes), and Abel Tasman (Acorn Stakes).

Days like June 10, 2017, at Belmont Park, and Saturday at Santa Anita are the sort of events that are the focus of Smith’s career. For years, he has been selective with his mounts, preferring quality over quantity.

In the last three years, Smith has cut back on his mounts per year, from as many as 554 in 2014 to 270 in 2019. Smith won 18 graded stakes in 2019, 10 of which were Grade 1’s. He rode Omaha Beach to Grade 1 wins in the Arkansas Derby and Santa Anita Sprint Championship; Midnight Bisou in such Grade 1 races as the Apple Blossom Handicap, Ogden Phipps Stakes and Personal Ensign Stakes; and McKinzie in the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga. He earned over $10.1 million in 2019, an average of $36,780 per mount, easily best of any jockey with more than 25 starters.

For 2020, the goals are similar – find quality mounts in major stakes nationwide.

“If I can have the same year I’ve had the last few years that would be incredible,” Smith said.

Omaha Beach was Smith’s leading male runner last year, but a source of disappointment after he was scratched from the Kentucky Derby in the days before the race with a throat ailment.

“In 2019, I was going into the Derby with the favorite,” Smith said. “It’s too bad Omaha didn’t get to run. It’s fun to see what he’s doing now.”

Smith’s next ride in a Grade 1 race may be Omaha Beach in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25, the 4-year-old colt’s final start before going to stud.

“Hopefully, he’ll get his chance one more time,” Smith said.

Smith may hold the record of most Grade 1 wins in North America, but there is a realization that like Bailey before him he is a placeholder for younger riders, such as John Velazquez or one of the dynamic brothers Irad and Jose Ortiz.

“Somebody will catch it,” Smith said. “It’s fun to get it before they did.”

Omaha Beach was an easy winner of the Malibu. The victory on Hard Not to Love for trainer John Shirreffs was hard-earned, largely due to events before the race. Hard Not to Love does not have a left eye – lost in an accident before she reached the racetrack – and can sometimes react or become confused in her surroundings.

With a large crowd at Santa Anita on Saturday, Hard Not to Love was reluctant to gallop after the post parade, stopping several times in front of the clubhouse. It took Smith’s coaxing, and aid from outriders, to guide Hard Not to Love to the backstretch where the rest of the warm-up went off without incident.

“It’s all the other stuff, and the people, that scare her,” Smith said. “You’ve got to watch her and understand. Once we got back to the gate, she was like an old pony. She knew her job.

“For Hard Not to Love to run that way and beat those kind of fillies was impressive.”

Sunday morning at Santa Anita, Smith worked two promising horses for Shirreffs – the colt Honor A. P. and the maiden filly Classy Ruler. Honor A. P. will start in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile at Santa Anita.

Owned by Lee and Susan Searing, Honor A. P. won a maiden special weight race at a mile by 5 1/4 lengths in his second career start on Oct. 13 at Santa Anita. The Sham will be his stakes debut.

“I love that horse,” Smith said. “He’s got stamina. He goes and goes and goes. That stride is humongous. It’s hard for horses to keep up with it. He’s a nice horse.”

When he spoke of Honor A. P., Smith sounded more like the enthusiastic riders half his age that he mentors in the jockeys’ room than he did a man who would be decades past retirement if he was involved in any other sport.

In a sense, Smith’s success is a missed opportunity for racing’s promotion – a personable veteran well into middle age capable of performing at the highest level.

“I’m blessed,” he said. “I’ve tried to stay healthy and stay in good shape and not get hurt. I’ve been a gym rat since I was in my early 20s. It’s paying off later in life.”