Headley trying to follow in her father's footsteps with Smooth Cruisein in Malibu

On Dec. 26, 2009 at Santa Anita, M One Rifle overcame an outside post in a field of 13 to win the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes from the front at 7-1 for the legendary California trainer Bruce Headley.

Headley, who died in 2021 at the age of 86, was an ace trainer with sprinters, notably the champion Kona Gold.

This year, again on Dec. 26, his daughter Karen will attempt to win her first Malibu Stakes with the outsider Smooth Cruisein, who has placed in two stakes this year.

Karen Headley has borrowed her father’s gameplan to prepare Smooth Cruisein. After the colt finished fourth of eight in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sept. 28, the $300,000 Malibu at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds became a goal.

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“I wanted to give him a little breather after running against older horses,” Karen Headley said. “He’s coming around really well.”

Bruce Headley often stressed long-range planning with his leading runners.

Smooth Cruisein, who races for Sandra Brown, Marsha, and Elise Naify and Karen’s mother, Aase, has had five workouts since Nov. 9 and will have his last pre-Malibu workout at Santa Anita on Friday.

Headley said Smooth Cruisein has changed since the loss in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship. He has remained in training through the fall.

“He was galloping,” she said. “I just stopped working him for a little while.

“He’s really maturing a lot.”

Smooth Cruisein won his debut in a six-furlong maiden race at Santa Anita in October 2024, his only start as a 2-year-old. Journalism, the winner of the Preakness Stakes and the second-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in the spring, was third in that race.

Earlier this year, Smooth Cruisein won an allowance race on a sealed and sloppy track at Santa Anita in April, and was third behind Nysos in the Grade 3 Triple Bend Stakes in May. Nysos won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar last month.

Prior to the Santa Anita Sprint Championship, Smooth Cruisein was second in a field of three in the Shared Belief Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile at Del Mar on Aug. 31.

The colt is capable of challenging for the lead, and has been effective as a stalker.

The win on a sealed track in April could provide vital experience. The weather forecast in Southern California is unsettled in the middle of next week, leaving the possibility the Santa Anita main track could have a higher-than-normal amount of moisture on Dec. 26.

Entries for the Dec. 26 program will be taken on Friday. The Malibu drew 19 nominations, including six trained by Bob Baffert – Barnes, Cornucopian, Getaway Car, Goal Oriented, Madaket Road, and Midland Money.

Barnes won the Grade 3 Perryville Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs at Keeneland on Oct. 18 for his second stakes win. Midland Money was a game second to Bartholdy in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 30.

Kyle Frey has been booked to ride Smooth Cruisein, Headley said. A win would give the 56-year-old Headley her first Grade 1 victory and make the Headleys the first family with a father-daughter team to win the historic race.

There have been two father-son combinations to win the Malibu.

Farrell Jones won a division of the race with Lightning Mandate in 1975, followed by his son Gary who won the 1983 running with Time to Explode.

Michael Whittingham won a division of the Malibu on Jan. 1, 1984. His Hall of Fame father Charles, won the race in 1985 with Gallant Bob, and in 1986 with Ferdinand, who had won the Kentucky Derby that year.

M One Rifle won 5 of 22 starts racing from 2009 to 2012. A California-bred gelding, who was bred and co-owned by Bruce Headley, M One Rifle was a three-time stakes winner.

“He bred the horse,” Karen Headley recalled of her father on Thursday. “How many people have tried to breed a stakes winner? That was one of his biggest feats.”

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