DEL MAR, Calif. – A filly who is irritable sometimes and reliable every time, Grand Slam Smile has come a long way both literally and figuratively. Based at Pleasanton in Northern California, nearly 400 miles from Del Mar, stakes winner Grand Slam Smile shipped in last week for the $150,000 Fleet Treat Stakes on Friday. She has a score to settle with Pushiness. Based on decisive recent stakes wins, Grand Slam Mile is up to the task. The chink in her armor, if it can be called that, is not evident in her past performances: seven starts, five wins – including four stakes – and two seconds. She fires every start. “She’s one that will lay it down,” trainer Steve Specht said. “She’s competitive, she never throws in the towel.” But there is a dark side to Grand Slam Smile, whose pre-race shenanigans can create as much drama as the race. Although she minds her manners in the morning, the afternoon can be a different story. It happened prior to her most recent start racing a mile and a sixteenth in the Melair Stakes at Santa Anita. She initially refused to be saddled. “In the paddock, she gets a little jacked up,” Specht acknowledged. “It was a mess last time. Her issue is putting that saddle on her. She was running over the top of the groom; she went from one end of the paddock to the other.” :: Get Del Mar Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day. Grand Slam Smile’s misbehavior was not an isolated incident, nor did it affect her performance. She won the Melair by more than four lengths and shortens to one turn Friday in the seven-furlong Fleet Treat for Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies. Her rivals include stakes winners Roberta’s Love and Pushiness, who defeated Grand Slam Smile last summer in a Cal-bred 2-year-old stakes at Del Mar. Sired by Smiling Tiger, Grand Slam Smile is owned by breeders Larry and Marianne Williams. Watching the filly relax in her Del Mar stall one morning last weekend, one would never guess she would be so challenging in the afternoon. She is not as bad as she once was. “She’s come a long way from what she used to be,” Specht said. “As far as training, she’s good. She was a handful when they sent her in [last year]. You couldn’t get a shank on her. You’d go in the stall and she would run to the back and then look like she was going to run over the top [of you]. She was just really leery of people.” But Grand Slam Smile could always run, and she has mellowed some. She returns Friday from a two-month break and Specht pronounced her fit for the taxing seven-furlong distance. “I’ve laid it to her,” he said. “I worked her a mile [at Pleasanton], and a couple three-quarters, and made her huff and puff. She’s fit.” Regular rider Frank Alvarado worked Grand Slam Smile five furlongs early Saturday at Del Mar and he rides her Friday from post 7. A pace-presser who can rally, versatile Grand Slam Smile has earned $404,900 and enters the Fleet Treat as the best horse. The main rivals for Grand Slam Smile are Roberta’s Love to her inside, and Pushiness two stalls to her outside. Roberta’s Love, who won the Evening Jewel Stakes two back at Santa Anita, is better than she showed last out when she finished a distant sixth behind Grand Slam Smile in the Melair. Hector Palma, trainer of Roberta’s Love, noted that front-runner Roberta’s Love never had a chance. Stretching out for the first time, she broke outward, lost position, raced at the back of the field and sputtered. “He tried to rate her and put her behind horses, and she had never been behind horses,” Palma said. “The race was over. Throw it out.” Juan Hernandez is back aboard Roberta’s Love on Friday, while opening-week leading rider Umberto Rispoli rides Pushiness, whose last-start 83 Beyer tops the Fleet Treat field. Winner of the CTBA Stakes last summer over a troubled Grand Slam Smile, Pushiness will enter off a highly rated runner-up comeback against older allowance fillies and mares at Los Alamitos. Michael McCarthy trains Pushiness, who looks like the speed of the speed. Pushiness, 2 for 4, has set the pace in all of her races. Safa ranks a notch below, but the late-runner is remarkably consistent. Trained by Gary Stute and ridden by Tiago Pereira, Safa has two wins and five seconds from seven starts this year, including runner-up finishes to Fleet Treat rivals Grand Slam Smile, Roberta’s Love, and Prancingthruparis. :: DRF's Del Mar Handicapping Packages: Get everything you need to play the races with confidence. The Fleet Treat also includes stakes-placed Loretta Lynn, along with Back On Track, Stop Digging, and Shamrockin. The Fleet Treat, in which favorites are 11 for 24 since 2000, is race 7 on the twilight card. First post is 4 p.m. The program includes an apparent standout in race 1, and a highly regarded maiden comebacker in race 4. Recycleyourheart, a creditable fourth in her debut, looks tough in the opener, a maiden-claiming sprint for Cal-bred 2-year-old fillies. A Day to Remember, an American Pharoah colt produced by stakes winner Kindle, returns in a maiden special weight turf sprint that is race 4. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.