Stewart works Smoken Wicked for Jerkens
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Dallas Stewart made the rare decision not to send a stable of horses to Saratoga for the 2025 meet, but he was on the grounds bright and early Wednesday morning to watch his up-and-coming 3-year-old sprinter Smoken Wicked breeze immediately after the racetrack opened for training at 5:30 a.m.
Breaking off in near darkness at the half-mile pole, Smoken Wicked posted a leisurely opening quarter-mile split in 26.21 seconds, prompting Stewart, on the walkie-talkie while watching the drill from the press box, to instruct his rider to let his horse pick up the pace turning into the stretch. Smoken Wicked responded impressively, lengthening his stride almost instantaneously to complete a final quarter in an eye-catching 23.40 over the dullish surface, at which point Stewart gave the order to ease back on the throttle on the gallop-out.
“He looked great, very happy with him,” said Stewart, who was already boarding a flight back to Louisville when reached by phone later Wednesday morning. “We’ll give him one more [work], hopefully just like that, and lead him over there for the race on Travers Day.”
The race Stewart was referring to is the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes for 3-year-olds on Aug. 23. Smoken Wicked is considered among the leading contenders for the seven-furlong fixture off his well-graded and one-sided 5 3/4-length victory over Gunmetal in the 6 1/2-furlong, Grade 2 Amsterdam here July 25, for which he received a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure.
“We tried him long a couple of times earlier in the year, but it’s just not what he likes,” Stewart said in reference to Smoken Wicked’s dull efforts in the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs and the 1 1/16-mile Rebel in his 3-year-old debut at Oaklawn Park.
“Now he’s back at the distances he prefers, 6 1/2 to seven furlongs. He really put it all together for us last time. He ran a tremendous race [in the Amsterdam], and we’re looking for a similar effort from him on Travers Day.”
This is the second time in the last three years that Stewart did not send a string of horses to Saratoga for the summer after having stabled here on a regular basis since the late 1990s.
“We ran just about everything before the end of the Churchill Downs meet. The babies aren’t ready yet, and it’s just so expensive to race there in the summer,” Stewart explained. “Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.”
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