Smooth Like Strait to resume training; Hit the Road set for important work
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hit the Road and Smooth Like Strait were Grade 1 winners in one-mile turf races in California in 2021, a season in which they met three times.
This year, they are unlikely to appear in the same race until well into the spring.
Smooth Like Strait has not raced since he finished a game second by a half-length to 2-1 favorite Space Blues in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar. Smooth Like Strait, who won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile last May, recently rejoined trainer Michael McCarthy’s stable at Santa Anita.
McCarthy said Friday that Smooth Like Strait is scheduled to start jogging on a daily basis on Monday.
Hit the Road, who won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita last March, missed the BC Mile because of illness, and was held out of the Grade 3 San Gabriel Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita when the race was moved from turf to dirt.
Hit the Road, who has not raced since he finished a troubled third in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita in October, is scheduled to have a workout at Santa Anita this weekend that will determine whether he starts in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, a $1 million race at 1 1/8 miles on Jan. 29 at Gulfstream Park, or the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes, a $100,000 race at a mile on turf on Feb. 5 at Santa Anita.
“We’ll see how he works and if everything looks good, we’ll make a decision next week,” trainer Dan Blacker said.
Hit the Road won the 2021 Thunder Road in his first start of the year.