With Bob Baffert's blessing, Mike Smith ran horse racing's version of the West Coast offense and won another Travers Stakes Saturday.
Hustled to the lead in the biggest race of his career, West Coast pranced home as an easy winner of the 148th "Mid-Summer Derby" at historic Saratoga in upstate New York. It was the fourth Travers winner for Smith, the third for Baffert and the second straight for both.
Shaking off Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming on the far turn, West Coast also trounced the Preakness and Belmont Stakes victors in the first Travers meeting of Triple Crown event winners in 35 years. Gunnevera and Irap, two of seven Kentucky Derby starters in the field, finished second and third with Tapwrit fourth in his first start since winning the Belmont June 10.
Skipping the Triple Crown races, West Coast won a minor stake on the Belmont Stakes undercard and then a Grade 3 race in Southern California. Like stablemate Arrogate in last year's Travers, West Coast went to the lead in the Travers after being taken off the pace in most prior starts.
Said Smith: "Bob texted me before the race and said, 'Listen, he's yours. Ride him however you want. Be aggressive with him."'
West Coast led by one length at the head of the stretch and increased his advantage under a left-handed whip. Winning by 3 1/4 lengths, the Flatter colt carried 126 pounds over a fast-rated mile and a quarter in 2:01.19 and paid $14.20, $7.60 and $5.30. He earned $670,000, bumping his career earnings from seven starts (five wins included) to just under $1 million for owners Gary and Mary West.
Two races earlier, Smith won the Grade 1 Forego aboard 4-year-old Drefong, the Baffert-trained winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita. The Forego victory compensated for Smith's second-place finish Saturday on Songbird in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign, only the second loss in 15 starts for the two-time champion trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer.
With Baffert staying in Southern California, longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes saddled Drefong and West Coast at Saratoga.
"I'm just proud to be the guy with the weight on his back," said Smith, 23 years after winning his first Travers on the late Holy Bull.
Good Samaritan, a lukewarm 7-2 favorite after beating the Derby, Preakness and Belmont winners in Saratoga's Grade 2 Jim Dandy, finished fifth. Then came Giuseppe the Great, McCraken, Preakness winner Cloud Computing, Always Dreaming, Lookin At Lee, Girvin and Fayeq, the latter a half-brother to Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra. Lookin At Lee ran third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and was runner-up in the Kentucky Derby.
Sports on 08/27/2017