Grand Slam Smile gets a home game in Livermore Valley Stakes

Grand Slam Smile has a rare “home game” when she starts in Saturday’s $75,000 Livermore Valley Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares at Pleasanton.

Though based in Northern California, Grand Slam Smile has made all five of her starts this year at Del Mar or Santa Anita, winning three stakes. The Livermore Valley Stakes, run at six furlongs, will be Grand Slam Smile’s first career start at Pleasanton and first start in Northern California since she finished second at 2-5 in the Golden Gate Debutante at Golden Gate Fields last November.

It is not as if Grand Slam Smile does not know Pleasanton. A 3-year-old filly owned by breeders Larry and Marianne Williams, Grand Slam Smile has been largely based at Pleasanton since early summer with trainer Steve Specht and has repeatedly worked quickly on the dirt track.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

The Livermore Valley Stakes will be Grand Slam Smile’s first appearance since a win in the California Cup Distaff on the hillside turf course on Oct. 12 at Santa Anita. In that 11-runner field, Grand Slam Smile stalked the pace before taking the lead in the final furlong en route to a 10-1 upset.

In the Livermore Valley Stakes, which drew a field of eight, Grand Slam Smile will be favored and will have an early target in five-time stakes winner Chancery Way, a winner of 8 of 16 starts overall.

The Livermore Valley Stakes will be Chancery Way’s first start since a win in the Governor’s Cup Stakes for fillies and mares at Sacramento in July.

“I hope I have her tight enough for the race,” trainer Jamey Thomas said. “There are a couple of others in there with speed. She has one way to go.”

Thomas rates Grand Slam Smile as the rival to beat.

“Grand Slam Smile is a great filly,” he said. “She’s won over $500,000. We better come with our A game. That’s the only way we can beat her.”

The Livermore Valley Stakes will be the stakes debut for the undefeated Duly Noted, and the first start in Northern California in more than two years for the Southern California challenger Irish Wahine.

Duly Noted, trained by Tim McCanna, has won three starts since last December, all come-from-behind victories in sprints at 5 1/2 or six furlongs.

Irish Wahine, who was claimed for $20,000 at Santa Anita in May, was second at 25-1 in the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 5 at Santa Anita, but only sixth of seven after a wide trip in the Betty Grable Stakes for statebred fillies and mares on Nov. 10 at Del Mar.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.