Virginia’s juvenile showcase continues with the Smark Stakes

Virginia continues to showcase the best and brightest juveniles with this week’s Smark Stakes. This is a six and a half furlong run for two year old fillies, and the track is rated as firm. A purse of $50000 awaits these fillies at the finish line. The card drew a short field of four, two of which make their debut here. The longshot is a short 4/1, with favorites at 7/5 and 8/5, and a 5/2 bid rounding things out. A lot of good breeding taking the track here, and this should be an exciting highlight to another stellar Virginia card.

PP 1) Dayfly’s Kid Sired by Dayjur, trained by nightnurse. Dayfly’s Kid makes her fourth career run here, boasting a record of 2-1-0 in her first three starts. This is her second stakes start, following a win in her first try last out at a slightly shorter distance. Her speeds have not been spectacular, but with the margins of victory in her last two races, she may have more speed that she has shown. She likes running just off the pace, and has a very strong stretch run. Among his current progeny, her sire Dayjur displays a strong turf preference, although this year’s crop has been better on dirt. Dayjur progeny tend to like a longer race, though they have been doing well at sprints. On the dam side, Lemon Drop Kid has shown a marked turf preference in his last two crops, although he too seems to produce offspring that prefer a longer route of ground. I’d like to see this one try longer, but barring a breakout run by one of the maidens in this field, she should be very dangerous down the stretch in this one.

PP 2) Nexis Sake Sired by Sakhee, Trained by sinohero. Nexis Sake is one of the first two unraced maidens in this race. She is the second daughter is 5 year old mare Secret City GA. Winless in 21 starts, she made the bulk of her earnings in dirt routes. Her first daughter, by Galileo(IRE) has followed in her footsteps, running her best at classic route distance. Nexis Sake comes straight from breeding shed to track, having been bred last week. Her sire, Sakhee, has produced progeny who are very strong on turf, and have a lot of distance potential. Carson City, on her dam side, has had progeny who have shown little surface preference, running equally well on both surfaces. They can be strong sprinters, but have shown stamina to go well longer, as well. Interestingly, the cross between Sakhee and the Mr. Prospector line has tended to produce dirt sprinters and turf routers.

PP 3) Lady Of The Best(IRE) Sired by Best Of The Bests(IRE), Trained by tullbrink2. Lady Of The Bests(IRE) is the relative veteran of this field, making her seventh career start here. She has gone 2-1-0-0-1 in her first six starts, grabbing a win in her first stakes appearance last time out at six furlongs on turf. She had a slow start to her career, running on dirt, but when she switched to turf her speeds jumped, and she hasn’t finished worse than second in three turf starts. She does the bulk of her running as a stalker, but has shown glimmerings of a deeper close, especially on the softer turf surface. Best Of The Bests(IRE)’s offspring have been better on turf than dirt in his last two crops. Distance wise, sprints to classic routes seem to be their distance of choice. Johnny Jones, her dam sire, has only three current progeny. Not much data is available, but his older progeny overwhelmingly preferred dirt, while this year’s two starters show a turf preference. The jury is still out in regard to distance. If she runs her usual race, this horse may very well find herself in an early lead position, and it will be interesting to see how she handles it.

PP 4) Ermington Dyna Sired by Dynaformer, Trained by pigeon12. Ermington Dyna is the second of the unraced fillies in this field. She was also bred just last week, and enters straight into stakes competition. She is a scratch breed, not based on a prior runner. In general, Dynaformer’s offspring display a slight preference for turf. They also seem to enjoy quite a bit more distance than is being offered here. Her dam sire, Zabeel(NZ), has produced horses with a pronounced turf preference, and is another strong stamina influence. This is a new cross of lines, and should produce a solid turf runner. With the stamina that comes from this pedigree, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a good deep closer. The question is whether she will have enough real estate to put that into play here.