Smooth Like Strait finally gets crack at hillside turf course in Joe Hernandez Stakes
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sometimes you have to wait for it, other times you don’t. Both apply to the marquee stakes race Saturday at Santa Anita.
There’s no wait for the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez. The $250,000 hillside turf sprint is the first race on the card, at noon. The placement is curious for a high-class feature race, but Santa Anita officials have one eye on the sky and another on the turf course.
It has been wet this week in Southern California, and while the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes for female turf sprinters was postponed from Sunday to Monday in hopes the race can stay on the hill, the Hernandez will be run as scheduled.
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More wet weather is expected Saturday, which is why Santa Anita positioned the Hernandez as the first race. The idea is to beat the rain and stay on the hillside course.
It’s the course trainer Michael McCarthy long fancied for Smooth Like Strait. The wait finally is over.
“I’ve been wanting to run him down the hill for two and a half years,” McCarthy said. “He was cut out for the hill the whole time.”
Instead, Smooth Like Strait became California’s premier turf miler despite going winless since May 2021. But the 5-year-old has been running well against top company, having placed in four Grade 1s and two Grade 2s since his last win. He faces more top company Saturday.
The 6 1/2-furlong Hernandez has the deepest turf-sprint field in California this year. Whatmakessammyrun won a hillside Grade 2 in fall; Gregorian Chant is a graded winner; Lane Way is graded-placed; Super Ocho exits the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and should set the pace; Hit the Road is a Grade 1 winner returning from a long layoff.
The field also includes Grade 2-winning comebacker Kiss Today Goodbye, along with stakes winners Irideo, Air Force Red and Front Run the Fed. Siglioso, longshot winner of a second-level allowance on the hill, merits consideration on the horse-for-course angle.
Smooth Like Strait is the class of the field and an easy target for skeptics. He has lost nine straight, many at short prices, and finished off the board in his two most recent starts. His alibis are reasonable.
A leg cut necessitated scratching from a Grade 1 at Keeneland in October, and Smooth Like Strait went without a prep into the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He set the pace and finished ninth. McCarthy wheeled him back three weeks later in a Grade 2 at Del Mar. In hindsight, it was too much. Smooth Like Strait finished seventh.
“The spacing might not have been the best,” McCarthy said. “He had two races back-to-back, a Breeders’ Cup race and Seabiscuit.”
Now it has been five weeks since Smooth Like Strait’s last race, and McCarthy expects a return to form.
“Good to go,” he said.
One reason McCarthy believes Smooth Like Strait will like the hill is his up-front style. Pace-pressing milers that lose their punch late, like Smooth Like Strait, often relish hillside races at the shorter distance. John Velazquez rides Smooth Like Strait, who could get a great trip positioned second or third.
Whatmakessammyrun is the late threat, with an attribute Smooth Like Strait lacks – proven form on the hill. Whatmakessammyrun won the Grade 2 Eddie D on the Santa Anita hill in fall, and earlier won a pair of turf sprints on the main oval.
The recent runner-up finish by Whatmakessammyrun in the five-furlong Stormy Liberal Stakes at Del Mar was designed as a prep for the Hernandez. Regular rider Joe Bravo is back aboard Saturday as the gelding stretches to a more favorable distance.
Lane Way scratched from the Stormy Liberal with a setback trainer Richard Mandella described as “a glancing blow, no big deal.” Lane Way has started twice on the hill – finishing second in the Eddie D and winning an allowance. Mike Smith rides Lane Way.
Graded winner Gregorian Chant shortens to his preferred sprint distance, trying to win for the first time since March. He has placed in four stakes since his last win.
“He’s always right there,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. “He just needs to get his confidence back. But he’s training well.”
Flavien Prat rides Gregorian Chant.
Super Ocho was a surprise Hernandez entrant, supplemented for $5,000 for his first start since setting the pace and finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. A turf winner in Chile, Super Ocho could steal the Hernandez based on his close third two back in a Grade 2 dirt sprint at Santa Anita.
Hit the Road won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe in March 2021. The Hernandez is his first start since January and second sprint of his career. In his only sprint he finished sixth going 4 1/2 furlongs in his debut as a 2-year-old.
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