Sea Streak touting himself ahead of debut in Smoke Glacken Stakes
?q=100)
Eddie Owens and his sole client, Vincent Annarella’s Holly Crest Farm, won the $106,000 New Jersey Breeders’ Stakes with Speaking on Aug. 27 at Monmouth Park and the $127,500 Charles Hesse Handicap for New Jersey-breds on Sept. 4 with Great Navigator. A stakes double could become a triple if Sea Streak runs to expectations in the $100,000 Smoke Glacken Stakes on Saturday.
Expectations are high enough that this unraced New Jersey-bred debuts in an open six-figure stakes race.
“If he breaks the way he has been in the morning, I don’t know that anyone can beat him,” Owens said Thursday morning. “I’m not afraid of anyone in there.”
Sea Streak is one of nine entrants in the six-furlong Smoke Glacken, which also includes Ship to Shore, a second Holly Crest homebred. Ship to Shore won a New Jersey-bred maiden sprint in his debut before finishing a well-beaten fifth in the Tyro Stakes, a turf sprint. He appears to be a more typically capable New Jersey-bred 2-year-old. Sea Streak could be different.
Both horses are by the New Jersey stallion Sea Wizard, whose progeny have gone 13-6-1-3 in their career debuts. Sea Streak’s dam is the unraced Silver Deputy mare High Noon Nellie, dam of 4-year-old Speaking, who won the 2021 Smoke Glacken in his second career start and was four lengths best last month in the New Jersey Breeders’.
Great Navigator, a 3-year-old, comes from a different family but also is by Sea Wizard. He won his debut at Monmouth by more than four lengths last summer, finished second in the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga, and on Monday captured the Hesse by 10 lengths. Sea Streak has worked with both horses.
“He’s breezed with all the good horses and is doing all the right things,” Owens said. “He can hold his own. He’ll be fine if he breaks good. That’s what always worries me with 2-year-olds.”
Sea Streak worked twice in May, didn’t breeze again until July, but has been going steadily since July 15. He shows three bullet drills, including a half-mile in 47.40 seconds on Aug. 20 that was fastest among 192 works at the distance that morning.
Shea D World bookended a debut dirt win at Monmouth and a first-level dirt allowance romp at Delaware Park around a distant turf third in the Tyro, and he may be favored. He has yet to race beyond 5 1/2 furlongs and could fight for the lead with Buccherino, a sharp Parx Racing maiden winner in his last start.
The field’s top Beyer Speed Figure belongs to another Jersey-bred, Book’em Danno, who got a 75 winning a statebred-restricted maiden sprint Aug. 19 by more than nine lengths. Book’em Danno cut the corner into the homestretch with impressive acceleration for a first-time starter and won eased up. He was a touch slow out of the gate and took a bump that nearly knocked Samuel Marin out of the irons; Marin, as his mount moves up in the first half furlong, can be seen reaching down to put his left foot back firmly in the stirrup.
Trained by Derek Ryan, who hadn’t won with a 2-year-old since December 2021, Book’em Danno appears to be conformationally challenged but has come back with two works since his race.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.