Smooth Like Strait will stay home, point to Kilroe Mile

Smooth Like Strait, winner of the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile last Saturday at Santa Anita and three other turf stakes in 2020, will have his 2021 debut in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile against older horses on March 6.

Trainer Michael McCarthy said Smooth Like Strait has received an invitation to the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park, but that a California-based campaign through the winter and spring has more appeal.

“I’m definitely going to wait,” McCarthy said. “That is the plan.”

McCarthy said the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf May 31 is a long-range goal for Smooth Like Strait, who has won 6 of 12 starts and earned $577,823 for Cannon Thoroughbreds. The winner of the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

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In the Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds, Smooth Like Strait beat Storm the Court, the champion 2-year-old male of 2019. Storm the Court set the pace and held second by three-quarters of a length.

Trainer Peter Eurton said Wednesday that the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Turf at 1 1/8 miles is in the plans for Storm the Court, who was winless in eight starts in 2020. Eurton said Storm the Court trained with enthusiasm before the $201,000 Mathis Brothers Mile.

“He kind of touts you when he’s doing well like he did going into this [last] race,” he said.

Storm the Court won the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on dirt, but raced primarily on turf in 2020. Storm the Court was sixth in the Kentucky Derby in September.

“We’ll stay on grass for a little bit,” Eurton said.