Shoemaker Mile

Grade I winner Smooth Like Straight (Midnight Lute--Smooth as Usual, by Flower Alley), retired sound from racing in March, will stand in 2024 at War Horse Place near Lexington, where his fee will be $3,500 live foal. Blood-Horse was the first with the story. A Cannon Thoroughbreds, LLC homebred trained by Michael McCarthy, Smooth Like Strait campaigned for five seasons and won five graded events, including the 2021 GI Shoemaker Mile S, the 2020 GII Twilight Derby, and the 2020 GII Mathis Brothers Mile S. He was also runner-up to...

Sent off the 3-1 second favorite to maintain a perfect record in four starts since switching to the grass just after the turn of the calendar, C R K Stable's Exaulted (Twirling Candy) was forwardly placed behind a pair of longshot leaders, got first crack at them into the stretch and kicked home smartly to win the GI Shoemaker Mile Monday at Santa Anita and with it, a fees-paid berth into the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile over the course and distance in November. Away smoothly for Juan Hernandez, the...

Santa Anita will play host to three Grade I races, while Grade III action features the return of a champion at Churchill Downs and a talented Louisiana-bred attempting to make the grade at Lone Star Park during holiday stakes action Monday. The GI Shoemaker Mile S. at Santa Anita is set to be the first of 41 Breeders' Cup Challenge series races in North America this year. A field of 11 goes postward seeking the winner's share of the $500,000, as well as an automatic berth in the GI Breeders'...

Cannon Thoroughbreds' Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute), narrowly beaten in three previous attempts at the top level, earned an automatic berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile with a wire-to-wire victory in the GI Shoemaker Mile S. Monday at Santa Anita. Sent off at 3-5, the bay colt broke alertly and took the early lead under his own steam. He hugged the rail while pressed by Restrainedvengeance (Hold Me Back) and Whisper Not (GB) (Poet's Voice {GB}) and the top trio separated themselves from the rest of the field through...

River Boyne (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) seeks his third straight victory Monday in the GI Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita, but he won't have it easy with 10 other talented runners signed on. Winner of the GIII La Jolla H. in 2018 and runner-up in this even last year, the dark bay had been knocking at the door of another stakes victory for some time, hitting the board in seven black-type events. He finally broke through Feb. 8 in the GIII Thunder Road S. going a mile over the local...

Santa Anita has published its first condition book since live racing was put on a hiatus as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The book, published Thursday afternoon, spans May 15 to May 25, and includes a number of prestigious stakes races, including the GI Shoemaker Mile S. and the GI Gamely S. Entries close on Tuesday, May 12 for the following Friday—what would be the first day of racing at the track since mid-March. Racing was formally cancelled there Mar. 20. There has been no official announcement that Santa...