Smart Enough gets first stakes win

Smart Enough, coming off a course-record-setting performance at Pimlico, had little trouble picking up his first stakes victory in the $70,100 Beau Genius Stakes at Churchill Downs Saturday.

In front at every call, Smart Enough took early pressure from It's Handsome I Am, eased clear of that rival on the turn, then repulsed a bid from a re-rallying It's Handsome I Am in the stretch.

The winner, a 3-year-old gelded son of Horse Chestnut, scored by 2 1/4 lengths in front of a crowd of 10,259, winning for the third time in four starts for owner Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr. of Erdenheim Farm and trainer John Fisher.

Racing over a course rated "good," he ran five furlongs in 56.44 seconds - .71 slower than his course-record-setting time of 55.73 that he established in winning a first-level allowance at Pimlico last month. He paid $3.20 as the favorite in the field of six 3-year-olds.

Rafael Bejarano rode Smart Enough - one of four winning mounts he had at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Grand Escape finished a length behind It's Handsome I Am in third. Lisselan Gardens, Skeleton Crew, and Stalwartly completed the order of finish. Chief What It Is and True Course were scratched.