Smooth Daddy refuses to lose in Fort Marcy
ELMONT, N.Y. - Smooth Daddy was the longest shot on the tote board for the Grade 3, $147,000 Fort Marcy at Belmont Park on Saturday, but he obviously didn't realize his chances of winning were slim.
Smooth Daddy put away Farz on the lead in the 1 1/8-mile turf race, and then was joined on the front end by Messi. He bested that rival in the stretch, and then was headed in the final sixteenth by 1-2 favorite Time Test. But Smooth Daddy wasn't finished and he came on again in the shadow of the wire to win by a nose.
Smooth Daddy was ridden by Eric Cancel. The Fort Marcy was the first graded stakes win of his career.
"When I got to the eighth pole I still had some horse so I went to a left-handed whip and he reacted to it and we won the head bob," Cancel said.
Smooth Daddy, who is trained by Tom Albertrani, was winning for the first time since September 2015. The Fort Marcy was his first stakes win. He finished second in the race a year ago.
"He gets game once he's in front," Albertrani said. "He digs in."
Smooth Daddy paid $37.20 in the five-horse field. He was timed in 1:52.64 over yielding ground. A 6-year-old son of Scat Daddy, he is now 4 for 26 with earnings of $462,301.
Time Test, a multiple group stakes winner in Britain who is now in the stable of Chad Brown, looked like he had the Fort Marcy in his hip pocket as he moved towards the leaders while in hand on the far turn. He bid for the lead outside Smooth Daddy and Messi in the stretch, gained a short lead but was denied on the wire.
Messi finished 1 1/4 lengths farther back in third.