Smoken Wicked, Secret Faith have easy times in divisions of Louisiana Futurity

The odds-on favorites had way too much for the opposition in the two heats of the Louisiana Futurity on Sunday at Fair Grounds, with Smoken Wicked romping at 2-5 in the colts and geldings division and Secret Faith jogging home at 1-9 in the fillies division.

Smoken Wicked ran especially well, beating a good colt, Voila Magic, by five lengths while clocking a swift 1:09.58 for six furlongs over a track rated “fast” but producing average times. Smoken Wicked made the eighth start of a campaign that began with a blowout debut score June 1 at Evangeline Downs. Owner Murray Valene subsequently moved Smoken Wicked north to trainer Dallas Stewart, who took the colt to Saratoga, then to Kentucky, and back to Louisiana.

Stewart clearly has pushed all the right buttons. Even at the end of a long season, Smoken Wicked came out of the Fair Grounds breathing fire and looked ready to run through a brick wall while tracking Voila Magic through a half-mile in 45.74. Colby Hernandez rode Smoken Wicked with complete confidence, his mount validating the approach as he tackled Voila Magic in upper stretch and steadily pulled clear in the $120,970 Futurity.

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Smoken Wicked ($2.80) performed at least as well Sunday as he had 15 days earlier winning the Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile, closing his 2-year-old campaign with an 8-4-1-1 record.

Smoken Wicked is by Bobby’s Wicked One out of Street Smoke, by Street Boss, and was bred by Tom Curtis and Wayne Simpson.

Secret Faith got an unnecessarily complicated trip winning the Donovan Ferguson Memorial in November and a careless ride that contributed to her defeat in the Champions Day Lassie, but on Sunday new jockey Florent Geroux kept things simple.

Secret Faith broke well and attended a moderate pace to the half-mile pole, at which point Geroux elected to deploy his mount’s superior talent. Clear midway around the turn, Secret Faith took a five-length advantage to the stretch call and despite the fact Geroux ended any sort of encouragement a half-furlong out, she won her $124,370 division of the Futurity by 7 1/4 lengths, clocking 1:10.83 for her six furlongs.

Trained by Jayde Gelner for the Norman Stables, Secret Faith ($2.20) ends her 2-year-old season with six wins and the tough Lassie loss from seven starts. Bred by J Adcock and Hume Wornall, Secret Faith is by Aurelius Maximus out of St. Jean, by Macho Uno.

Neither she nor Smoken Wicked had an anxious moment Sunday at Fair Grounds.

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