Smart N Classy Handicap rematches top four from Spruce Fir
Five horses exiting the May 14 Spruce Fir Handicap are joined by five other New Jersey-bred fillies and mares in the $85,000 Smart N Classy Handicap, the featured eighth race Sunday at Monmouth Park.
Alta Velocita, I’m Listening, Bramble Bay, and Princess Georgia were the first four home in the Spruce Fir; all run back Sunday, as does Spruce Fir seventh-place finisher Beatubyachubinose. The Spruce Fir was contested at six furlongs over a sloppy Monmouth surface, but the dirt should be fast Sunday for the two-turn mile Smart N Classy.
While Alta Velocita won the Spruce Fir by one length while carrying top weight of 124 pounds, there are plenty of reasons to play against the 6-year-old mare this time. All of Alta Velocita’s 20 starts have been sprints and the Spruce Fir win made her 2 for 2 on wet tracks. Under Paco Lopez, Alta Velocita saved ground stalking the pace around the turn and, still hugging the rail, got through along the inside in upper stretch, an ideal journey.
Lopez abandons Alta Velocita for Spruce Fir third-place finisher Bramble Bay; both horses, along with Dantastic, carry top weight of 123 pounds. Bramble Bay is no sprinter and has a right to run better at this two-turn mile, but the mare clearly prefers turf to dirt. Bramble Bay did lose ground going four paths wide around the turn in the Spruce Fir, though her rail draw Sunday means she’ll have to take kickback, which can be tough on a turf-leaning horse.
Spruce Fir fourth-place finisher Princess Georgia deserves a long look, presumably at fair win odds. Granted, this is a 7-year-old with 35 starts who has spent much of her career in lower-level claiming races, but taking a long view, the removal of blinkers early in 2021 appeared to raise Princess Georgia’s baseline performance. She won the 2021 Spruce Fir, though equally pertinent is a two-turn Monmouth dirt win last summer. In this year’s Spruce Fir, Princess Georgia was steadied back to last after the start and, with just one horse behind her, went extremely wide on the far turn. The mare has no love of wet tracks yet ran her final furlong in 13.19 seconds, easily the fastest among Spruce Fir runners.
Among the quintet that didn’t contest the Spruce Fir, long layoff comebacker Muzzle Tough merits consideration. She hasn’t started since setting the pace and fading to fifth as a 3-year-old in the 2020 Smart N Classy, run in October that year. Muzzle Tough didn’t post a work following that race until April of this year, suggesting she came out of the race with a physical issue, and she now makes her first start for trainer Kelly Breen. Already this meet, Breen has sent out two long layoff winners: He’spuregold won a May 29 turf-route allowance following a 218-day layoff, and Royal Urn on May 15 captured a New Jersey-bred dirt-sprint stakes following a break of 315 days.