Bad start can’t stop Tiger in San Carlos victory

Smiling Tiger flew home to take the San Carlos (Benoit Photos) Alan Klein and Philip Lebherz’s SMILING TIGER (Hold That Tiger) has shown the preference to run on or very near the lead, but jockey Joel Rosario had to come up with some new tactics on Saturday. The chestnut colt stumbled badly and lurched to the inside when the gates opened on the $150,000 San Carlos H. (G2) at Santa Anita, and Smiling Tiger found himself in the unfamiliar spot of playing catch up. Captain Cherokee (Sir Cherokee) took full advantage of the 7-5 favorite’s bad start and took command, but was quickly challenged by Ventana (Toccet), who rushed up to his outside. Those two battled it out on the backstretch while Rosario allowed Smiling Tiger to settle and recover from his earlier experience in midpack. Captain Cherokee and Ventana continued dueling rounding the turn, but found company in the form of Mythical Power (Congaree) and Smiling Tiger on the outside as they entered the stretch. The longtime leaders were tough in the lane, but Smiling Tiger dug in and overtook those two while not allowing Mythical Power to keep pace. The four-year-old earned his first victory on a dirt track when completing the seven-furlong, wet-fast event in 1:20 1/5.

“(Trainer Jeff Bonde) told me to send him, but he stumbled leaving the gate
so I let him settle and relax,” Rosario explained. “He’s a nice horse, a classy
horse. He showed today he can relax and he can run from off the pace.”

“(Rosario) rode a professional race. He did what he had to do,” Bonde said.
“When the situation arose, the horse responded to him. There’s not much to say.”

Smiling Tiger rewarded his backers with payouts of $4.80, $3.20 and $2.60 for
his head score over Captain Cherokee. Mythical Power was three parts of a length
back in third, with Ventana filling the fourth spot another three-quarters of a
length back. Stacy’s Hope (Strong Hope) and Supreme Summit (Cactus Ridge)
rounded out the order under the wire.

“We ran the horse enough (three times this meet). We’ll take a little
spacing,” Bonde remarked when asked what’s next for his charge. “He’s nominated
to Dubai (Golden Shaheen [UAE-G1] on March 26) but he has a chance as a stallion
prospect, so my big goal — whether it’s the owners’ goal or not — is to run
the horse in the (May 30) Metropolitan Mile ([G1] at Belmont Park). There might
be one race before that but I don’t know what it’ll be.”

Smiling Tiger’s last win came in October’s Ancient Title S. (G1), which was
his second Grade 1 score following victory in the August 1 Bing Crosby S. The
chestnut also captured last year’s Lazaro Barrera Memorial S. (G3) and recorded
his first stakes triumph when eight lengths the best in the 2009 Lost in the Fog
S. at Golden Gate Fields in only his second career start.

Smiling Tiger actually broke his maiden by six lengths at Golden Gate prior
to his stakes bow in the Lost in the Fog, and would go on as a juvenile to place
in the Best Pal S. (G2) and Del Mar Futurity (G1). He opened his three-year-old
season with a third in the Harry Henson S. and also placed in the Breeders’ Cup
Sprint (G1), Malibu S. (G1) and Pat O’Brien S. (G1) last year. Third in the
Palos Verdes S. (G2) to start 2011, the four-year-old now shows a 13-6-1-6 line
to go along with $875,864 in lifetime earnings.

Bred in Kentucky by Dr. Rodney Orr, Smiling Tiger made two sales appearances
as a yearling. He RNA’ed for $32,000 at the 2008 Keeneland January sale before
selling for $40,000 at the Washington September sale. He’s out of the
stakes-winning Shandra Smiles (Cahill Road), who is also the dam of a sophomore
colt named Grinning Gang (Posse), a juvenile filly named Pure Smiles (Pure
Prize) and an unnamed yearling colt by Orientate.

The 13-year-old mare is a half-sister to Grade 3 runner-up Traci Girl (Quiet
American) and this is also the family of 1986 Carter H. (G2) winner Love That
Mac (Great Above) and 1983 Prix de Diane Hermes (French Oaks) (Fr-G1) victress
Escaline (Fr) (Arctic Tern).