Smooch Up looks to stay perfect at home base in Lady Erie
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Smooch Up has proven there isn’t much she can’t do at her home track of Presque Isle Downs, defeating both open and Pennsylvania-bred stakes company while unbeaten in four starts at the Erie, Pa., track.
She has also developed tractability and versatility in her running style. Still, even off a dominant win in her season debut, she hasn’t scared anyone off. A field of 10 has been entered for Monday evening’s $100,000 Lady Erie Stakes for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs on the Tapeta.
Smooch Up, by Cupid, races as a homebred for Tammy and Robert Klimasewski and is trained by Ron Potts. After a debut win on Tapeta at Presque Isle last August, she ventured to Colonial Downs and finished third in the Keswick Stakes on dirt. She returned to Presque Isle for a 9 3/4-length allowance score, then narrowly won the Presque Isle Debutante in September going 6 1/2 furlongs. She concluded her season with a fifth-place finish in the seven-furlong Glorious Song in October at Woodbine.
Smooch Up returned from an eight-month winter layoff in the Malvern Rose Stakes on June 22 against statebreds at Presque Isle and ran away to a 6 1/4-length victory under Antonio Gallardo, who has the return call. Smooch Up, who used a front-running style early as a 2-year-old, has learned to professionally stalk from just off the pace. She was content to sit kindly in third in the Malvern Rose before sweeping to victory.
She also broke cleanly in her season debut, showing that she is continuing to mature. While both of her losses last year could be forgiven due to going out of town and trying different surfaces or distances, she broke poorly in both races.
The Malvern Rose has come back well. Both runner-up Eye Candy Warrior, who goes in the Lady Erie, and third-place Divine Intentions came back to win in allowance-level company. Smooch Up earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 78 for her Malvern Rose victory.
The only fillies entered in the Lady Erie who can match or exceed that number are not certain to run. Quiet Street and Niche, both based at Saratoga, are entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Coronation Cup on the turf. That race drew a field of just six in the main body, and Niche is one of the main-track-only entrants. The forecast for Saturday afternoon in Saratoga Springs calls for about a 70 percent chance of rain with scattered thunderstorms.
Quiet Street, a stakes winner around one turn at Kentucky Downs last year, cuts back to a sprint in either spot after earning a career-high 78 Beyer when fifth in the Grade 2 Wonder Again last out. Niche has won maiden and allowance sprints with figures of 79 and 78, respectively. She came nowhere close to those performances in three turf starts at Fair Grounds.
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