Veteran claimers Royal Squeeze, Fast Pass aiming high in Smile Sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A couple of veteran sprinters who have spent the majority of their careers in the claiming ranks, Royal Squeeze and Fast Pass, could realize the dream of becoming a graded stakes winner when they meet in the Grade 3, $250,000 Smile Sprint, the co-feature along with the Grade 2 Princess Rooney on the Summit of Speed card here June 29.

Royal Squeeze would enter the six-furlong Smile Sprint riding a four-race winning streak. Trainer Elizabeth Dobles and owners Imaginary Stables and Glenn Ellis also have the option of running the 7-year-old in the $75,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint the same day.

“We’ll go over the nominations and decide which spot fits him better,” said Dobles, who claimed the son of Wildcat Heir for $25,000 out of a third-place finish behind division leader Pay Any Price over the turf Feb. 8. Since then, Royal Squeeze hasn’t lost, winning three optional starter races and the Big Drama Stakes. Jairo Rendon rode him in his last two races.

“Right now, the dirt would be more likely,” Dobles said. “He beat a good field in the stakes two races back, although the fact he won his last start in a starter allowance by only a nose concerned me a little. It made me wonder if he might be on the decline. But the rider said he was fine, that he didn’t want to take too much out of him for his next start.”

A victory by Royal Squeeze in the Smile Sprint would be the first for Dobles in a graded stakes.

“I look at every race as the same to me other than the purse money,” said Dobles. “A win is a win, whether it’s in a $6,000 claimer or a graded stakes. What’s most important to me is seeing my horses perform to the best of their ability every time they go out there. If they do that, I’m pretty happy.”

Fast Pass joined trainer Peter Walder’s barn after being purchased in a packaged deal with Lewis Vale, specifically with the Claiming Crown here in December in mind. He finished third in the Claiming Crown Express and lost four subsequent starts before posting back-to-back victories, including a one-length decision May 25 in the Opening Lead Stakes, a prep for the Smile Sprint.

“We bought him for the Claiming Crown, but he’s turned out to be a little more than we expected,” said Walder. “He’s a very difficult horse to ride; a lot of jocks panic when he’s too far back. You just have to let him fall back there and do his thing. The decision to run in the Smile was easy. It’s a race over our home track against what figures, for the most part, to wind up a bunch of horses we’ve already run against and beaten already, for $250,000, not $75,000. Obviously, he’s come a long ways, and to win a Grade 3 with a horse who got beat for $4,000 several times earlier in his career would be pretty awesome.”

The Smile Sprint attracted 16 nominees, including four 3-year-olds. Do Share, the winner of the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap on March 9 and fourth in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Sprint in his most recent start, tops the list but will not make the trip south, trainer Mike Maker confirmed Thursday.

The $250,000 Princess Rooney, a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, attracted 15 nominations topped by the multiple graded stakes winner and recently Grade 1-placed Come Dancing. Stormy Embrace figures to be the one to beat while trying to replicate her easy victory in last year’s Princess Rooney.

◗ A field of nine Florida-breds will contest Saturday’s $47,000 optional-claiming feature. Allurstra, narrowly beaten in her last start while earning a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure, tops the lineup, along with Kong Style and the stakes-placed Max K. O.