A field of nine was entered Friday for the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds, to be run Monday, Jan. 1, at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark. Lengthened from one mile to 1 1/16 miles since last season, the Smarty Jones offers 21 total points (10-5-3-2-1, respectively) to the top five finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby.
Just Steel exits a victory in the $225,500 Ed Brown Stakes at 6 ½ furlongs Nov. 25 at Churchill Downs after two previous unsuccessful stakes starts in the G1 Hopeful at Saratoga and G1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. A son of Triple Crown winner Justify, Just Steel is trained by D. Wayne Lukas and owned by BC Stables. He was a $500,000 purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Catching Freedom, a $575,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase for Albaugh Family Stables, had an extremely troubled trip last out as the even-money favorite in a 1 1/16-mile Churchill Downs allowance race on Nov. 9 for trainer Brad Cox. Ridden that day by Florent Geroux, the Constitution colt rallied from well off the pace, but ran into traffic problems at the top of the stretch and was bottled up for most of the stretch, seemingly full of run but with nowhere to go.
Informed Patriot and Gettysburg Address finished third and fourth, respectively, in the G3 Street Sense Stakes run over a sloppy track Oct. 29 at Churchill Downs. Cox has elected to take blinkers off Gettysburg Address, another son of Constitution who showed speed in the Street Sense but faltered in the final quarter mile. The Hard Spun colt Informed Patriot, trained by Steve Asmussen, subsequently finished third in an allowance race at Churchill Downs Nov. 25.
First run in 2008, the Smarty Jones is named for the 2004 3-year-old male champion who swept the Southwest Stakes, Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn that year en route to Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories. Brad Cox has won two of the last three runnings.
The field for the Smarty Jones, from the rail out, with trainers and jockeys, is:
1-Informed Patriot, Steve Asmussen, Ricardo Santana Jr.
2-Catching Freedom, Brad Cox, Cristian Torres
3-Lagynos, Steve Asmussen, Joel Rosario
4-Mystik Dan, Ken McPeek, Julien Leparoux
5-Mo Winning, Robertino Diodoro, Harry Hernandez
6-Gettysburg Address, Brad Cox, Flavien Prat
7-Just Steel, D. Wayne Lukas, Ramon Vazquez
8-Chaperone, Ron Moquett, Keith Asmussen
9-Fidget, Brad Cox, Martin Chuan
Probable post time for the Smarty Jones, the ninth of 10 races, is 4:14 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 12:30 p.m. CT on Monday.
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