Tampa Bay Downs: Hold On Smokey should be near front in Turf Dash

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Saturday’s $100,000 Turf Dash is a wide-open affair, and while Spring to the Sky and Berlino Di Tiger, who finished fifth and sixth in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Feb. 1, may vie for favoritism in a full field for the five-furlong dash, an ageless wonder who is still going strong at 9 should be right in the thick of things.

Hold On Smokey will be shooting for his 18th win in his 53rd career start Saturday at an age when most of his contemporaries have been retired.

Hold On Smokey is not only still running but is running well. Hold On Smokey has won seven of his last 13 starts while mostly facing tough optional-claiming and starter-allowance company. And last winter, he dueled for the lead into the final furlong of the Turf Dash before finishing third behind the rallying graded stakes winner Great Attack.

Joyce Kielty is the owner and trainer of Hold On Smokey, and she and her late husband, Donald, raced a modest stable for a number of years, mostly around New England. The New Hampshire resident was asked recently what she does to keep Hold On Smokey sharp.

“He’s the one who keeps me together, not the other way around,” she joked. “He’s just a very laid-back horse who really doesn’t let a whole lot bother him, and he loves to be turned out and just chill after training hours and between races. We turn him out for a few hours every afternoon, and he loves it. When he goes to race, he’s ready to compete, but he also loves to just hang out and enjoy himself when he’s not training or racing. Maybe that’s why he’s still competitive at his age.”

Hold On Smokey will be making his fourth start of the meeting after a win and two seconds at the Turf Dash’s distance on grass. In that Dec. 14 victory, he dueled through a 20.92-second opening quarter-mile before winning by a neck in 55.93, and he can be expected to contest the pace from the outset Saturday under Augusto Marin.

Spring to the Sky had trouble at the start of the Gulfstream Park race before closing to be fifth, beaten two lengths. In October, the Bruce Brown trainee finished third in the Grade 3 Woodford Stakes on turf at Keeneland, and his lone win in six starts last year came in a tough optional-claiming sprint on turf at Saratoga.

Berlino Di Tiger, brought to the United States from his native Brazil last winter, won the Grade 3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Kentucky Derby Day in May and will be making just his third start since that victory. He has 8 wins from 14 career starts.

Pyrite Green rallied from just off the pace to win at the Turf Dash’s distance Feb. 5, with Hold On Smokey finishing second. Tell All You Know also deserves a long look after finishing a close third in that race while making his first start since November.