Power To Impact, Beach Time Co-Favs In Canada
The Smart Dancer Stakes Record: 1:47 (2010) Cloud In The Sky (Owner: Chilimac Stables) **************************************************************** It’s a short field of five going in the Grade 2 Smart Dancer in Ontario this weekend, but it’s definitely a quality field. The morning line guys have made Power To Impact and Beach Time your 2/1 morning line favorites, and deservedly so. Both are coming off a couple of very nice performances in graded races last time out, but there are a ton of big speed figure races on some of these past performance charts in this race. Those two co-favorites will have to watch out for Gone Crying and Judgement Days, both of whom are looking to get back on the winning track here in Canada this weekend. And then there’s the new kid on the block, the lightly raced Cold World, who is starting to make some noise in this division and is coming off a pretty nice score of her own last time out in a grade 3 win, the first graded stakes win of her career. ( 1 ) POWER TO IMPACT (JPN) Owner: Tazdevil Stables Odds: 2/1 (Deep Impact x Sanctification (Giant’s Causeway)) Career Record: 17 7-6-1 Career Earnings: $333,872 Power To Impact is shipping in after a stunning score in Europe in the Grade 3 Disolated Stakes. The four year old daughter of Deep Impact stalked early leader Caused by Evil and pounced in deep stretch to score the win at Surrey against a full field of 14, and she did it as a 13/1 long shot. She sure didn’t look like a 13/1 shot there. It was her first graded score in five tries. Power To Impact threw a career-high tying 112 speed figure in that race. In fact, she’s thrown triple digit speed figures in seven of her last eight races. How she got off at 13/1 last time out is beyond me, although that was a quality field she was up against. She showed a ton of early speed in that race in Surrey, after she put up a couple of good efforts in graded races in Japan and California just before her last race. Her speed figures had been on the rise, and you could pretty much see that this one was ready to pop big, if you take a close look at her past performance charts. She’s probably going to try to stay close to the front here, and if she can avoid getting caught up in a speed duel, this race might just be hers to win. It looks like Power To Impact has finally figured it all out, and that makes her a dangerous filly in this spot. Keep an eye on her this weekend. She’s breaking from the one hole, and she’s likely to get a really nice, ground-saving trip on the rail, and that could spell trouble for the rest of this field–if she gets loose on the lead and too far out in front. ( 2 ) BEACH TIME (KY) Owner: Bush League Stables Odds: 2/1 (Malibu Moon x Copenhagen Again (Danehill)) Career record: 21 8-2-3 Career earnings: $557,042 This is the one who will be trying to roll up on the speedy Power To Impact late in Saturday’s Grade 2 Smart Dancer. Beach Time, a four year old daughter of Malibu Moon, is trying this 9 furlong distance for the first time in her career after 21 starts, and she’s pretty much the best of the deep closers in this field of five. She’s been on a triple digit speed figure tear lately. Look at her past performances. In five of her last six races, all she’s done is throw speed figures of 107, 111, 112, 114, and 111. Pretty impressive, huh? And in those six races, she’s got three wins and a second to show for all that hard work. They were all either listed or graded stakes. Last time out, she just missed getting her fourth graded win in the 8.5 furlong Grade 3 Morning Julep in Kentucky, when she finished second to Avout, who led from gate to wire. Avout isn’t here today, and Beach Time will have an extra half furlong to work with, and that definitely stacks the odds in Beach Time’s favor. It looks like she’s been ready to step up to nine panels for a while now. She came from nearly nine lengths off the lead last time out, to just miss by 1 ¼ lengths in that loss to Avout. Beach Time usually likes to lay a little closer to the leaders than that, and her connections might just try to keep her a little closer to the leaders in Canada this weekend. ( 3 ) GONE CRYING (KY) Owner: Bobangod Stables Odds: 3/1 (Street Cry x Sadler’s Wells x Gone West) Career record: 30 9-7-2 Career Earnings: $221,883 Bobangod Stables sends out Gone Crying, a five year old scratch-bred daughter of Street Cry, who’s got some pretty regal names in that pedigree of hers (Sadler’s Wells and Gone West). She started out her career in 2009 on the dirt, and when that didn’t pan out early on, her connections quickly switched her to the turf, where she’s been scintillating, especially in the speed figure department. Since December of 2010, she’s had 15 starts, and only three times has she failed to pop the 100 barrier in the speed figure department. Last time out, she ran in that same race that Beach Time was in, the 8.5 furlong Grade 3 Morning Julep in Kentucky. Gone Crying finished fifth there, but it was a really impressive fifth, since she was only three lengths behind the winner. She was rolling like a freight train late, coming from nearly 13 lengths off the pace midway through the race. Gone Crying will show you a very European style of running. She lays back early in her races and once she hits the far turn and her jockey presses the go button, she takes off. Like Beach Time, she’ll probably appreciate this extra half furlong she’ll be seeing in Canada this weekend. She’s won nearly a third (9) of her 30 career starts, so she knows how to get to the winner’s circle. The last time she won was four start back, when she threw a 112 speed figure in a 9.5 furlong listed stakes in Pennsylvania. That distance was probably more to her liking, and it was one of the more impressive recent runs by Gone Crying that you’ll see on her past performance charts. She could be pretty dangerous here this weekend, if she runs anything close to a 112. That would probably be good enough to win this race. She’ll probably need some fast early fractions to run at, and she might get that from Power To Impact, who should be pushing the early pace from the rail. ( 4 ) JUDGEMENT DAYS (KY) Owner: Tees Stables Odds: 7/2 (Giant’s Causeway x Kingmambo x Deputy Minister) Career record: 16 5-4-3 Career earnings: $236,399 Judgement Days, a four year old scratch-bred daughter of Giant’s Causeway, will be looking to score her second graded win this weekend in the Smart Dancer. In fact, the last time Judgement Days won was back in early March, when she took down a pretty big score in the Grade 3 Hill Side Challenge in Northern Florida. She popped a 114 speed figure there, which is by far the highest of her career. She ran the nine furlongs that day in 1:47 flat, and that, quite simply, is the most stunning performance of her short career. She looked stupendous in that race, coming from a little over six lengths off the pace to win drawing off. After that, she finished third in the Grade 2 Black Betty and sixth in the Grade 1 Ugly Breeders’ Bowl Distaff, where she was beaten by a combined margin of only a little over six lengths. Last time out she ran in sort of a tune-up race, when she finished fifth in a 7.5 furlong listed stakes in North Dakota. Her connections, Tees Stables, did this very same thing back in November of 2011, about three starts before she took down the only graded score of her career. He ran her in a sprint, and after that she started to take off in the speed figure department. Tees is probably hoping for more of the same here this weekend. Judgement Days likes to lay far back in her races, too, so you can look for her to come flying late, if she’s on her game. She could be really dangerous in this spot, especially after that sprint tune-up just before this start. She seems to enjoy coming off a sprint and throwing a big number in her next time out route race, and that’s probably what she’s going to do here. Keep an eye on the entry from Tees Stables. She could be dangerous in this spot. ( 5 ) COLD WORLD (IRE) Owner: Foto Finish Odds: 9/2 (Montjeu x Caerleon x Carson City) Career record: 10 6-1-3 Career earnings: $268,304 The four year old Irish-bred Cold World is not only the least experienced filly in this field of five, she’s also the hottest filly shipping into Canada this weekend. The daughter of Montjeu who’s got Caerleon and Carson City back there in her scratch-bred pedigree comes into the Grade 2 Smart Dance red hot, having won five of her last six starts, including a graded score last time out in the 9 furlong Grade 3 Whole Time in Virginia. She threw a 105 speed figure in that race, which is not quite up there with most of these she’ll be running against. But if you look closely at her past performance charts, you can see this filly had a lot of talent from the very beginning of her brief career. She has never been out of the top three in her career, and it took her only four starts to break the 100 speed figure mark. It’s kind of a curious breeding, one you really don’t see very often–Montjeu x Caerleon x Carson City. And Carson City on the tail end of that pedigree probably explains a lot of Cold World’s precocity, I would venture to guess. Cold World broke her maiden at first asking, and she progressed rapidly through the allowance ranks, obviously a sign of a top-notch training job here, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. She hit listed stakes company four starts back, where she finished third in a 10 furlong affair in Taiwan, the place she suffered her only loss since January. After that came her first two listed stakes wins, before she won that graded race last time out. And she was definitely impressive there, drawing off at the end to win by two lengths and not even breaking a sweat doing it. She’ll be dangerous here, I think, if she’s the natural talent I believe she is. When you look at some of these past performance charts, you just get that feeling. And I have a feeling this might be one filly we’re going to be hearing a lot from in the coming months as she progresses through this classic turf division.
Grade II
Distance: A mile and one eighth, Or 9 Furlongs, Or About 1800 Metres
Surface: Firm Turf
Purse: $300,000 ($180,000 To The Winner)
Conditions: Fillies and mares, 3 years old and up