Smooth Like Strait has edge in Eddie Logan

ARCADIA, Calif. – The favorite will be tough to beat in the $75,000 Eddie Logan Stakes for 2-year-olds on Sunday at Santa Anita.

Smooth Like Strait, the field’s lone graded winner, also enters the mile turf race with a tactical advantage as lone speed. The class-speed attributes make Smooth Like Strait one of the most probable winners, and possibly one of shortest prices, on the Sunday card.

A field of eight entered the Logan, race 6, which is the first in a pair of mile turf stakes for 2-year-olds. In the $75,000 Blue Norther for fillies, race 8, front-runner Laura’s Light is likely to start favored despite a potentially challenging pace scenario.

Not so for Smooth Like Strait, who could be loose on the lead while seeking his third straight victory. Michael McCarthy trains Smooth Like Strait for owner-breeder Cannon Thoroughbreds.

Smooth Like Strait defeated five Logan rivals last month at Del Mar in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes. Those include improving DeMille runner-up Goliad, who will try again Sunday. But the main threat to the favorite might be maiden winner Royal Act.

Royal Act overcame a wide trip from an outside post winning his debut at a mile on turf, and the son of American Pharoah is likely to improve. The Logan also includes import Air Force Jet, making his first U.S. start; early-season stakes winner Encoder; allowance winner Hariboux; and turf maiden winners Liar Liar and Kanderel. The Stiff could scratch and run on dirt.

Though he is by Midnight Lute, known as a dirt stallion, Smooth Like Strait “actually moves like a turf horse,” McCarthy said. The trainer gave the colt one shot on dirt first out, and he stopped after three furlongs. Three subsequent starts have been on turf, including a maiden sprint win, followed by the DeMille. Geovanni Franco rides Smooth Like Strait, and the pair will break from the far outside in post 9.

Goliad won his career debut for trainer Richard Mandella, and followed with runner-up finishes in an allowance and the DeMille.

“He’s just starting to understand what we’re doing, just now starting to figure out how to do this,” Mandella said. “He’s a work in progress.” Goliad, by War Front, will be ridden by Flavien Prat from the rail.

Peter Eurton trains Royal Act, a $500,000 purchase who won first time out for Lee Searing’s CRK Stable. Royal Act’s main-track works are only ordinary, which is one reason he debuted on turf. By the time he ran Nov. 10, progeny of American Pharoah had demonstrated an affinity for grass – among them Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Four Wheel Drive.