ARCADIA, Calif. – Grand Slam Smile’s price will be much shorter in the California Distaff Handicap on Sunday at Santa Anita than a year ago when she scored a $23.40 upset.
Only five are entered in the hillside turf sprint for California-bred fillies and mares, and trainer Sean McCarthy is confident Grand Slam Smile will fire. She always does.
“You have to respect the field, for sure,” McCarthy said. “It’s still a horse race, and anything can happen, but she’s been training as she’s been training all year. We’re happy with the way she’s going into it.”
A favorite has not won the California Distaff on the hill since 2014. Repeat winner Just Grazed Me won as the favorite on the main turf oval in 2020. Historical trivia is not likely to stall Grand Slam Smile, a six-time stakes winner who runs well going short and long, on turf and dirt.
The California Distaff is race 1 Saturday, and Grand Slam Smile is the 125-pound topweight. She will face California-bred stakes winners Sneaker and Moment’s Pleasure, and allowance winner Issa Court. Bit’s Tiger Magic, who scratched from an allowance race Friday, is the speed of the field.
“Small fields can be difficult, and there’s speed in there,” McCarthy noted. That hardly matters for Grand Slam Smile. As the trainer noted, “She’s shown in the past she doesn’t need the lead.”
Grand Slam Smile, who won the two-turn Solana Beach Stakes in her most recent start two months ago at Del Mar, will be ridden again by William Antongeorgi. “He knows her, he’s worked her every time, he’s got a relationship with her,” McCarthy said.
So does McCarthy, who took over Grand Slam Smile this year when trainer Steve Specht retired. McCarthy and Specht communicate regularly about the filly.
“She’s a very intelligent filly,” McCarthy said. “I have to keep reminding myself she’s only 4. Maybe she’s getting better.”
Larry and Marianne Williams bred and own Grand Slam Smile, who has won eight races and $676,120 from 14 starts. Sired by Smiling Tiger, Grand Slam Smile has never finished out of the money.
The main rivals for Grand Slam Smile are Sneaker and Bit’s Tiger Magic. Sneaker is a route stakes winner whose only career sprint produced a third-place finish in the Irish O’Brien Stakes on the hill in March. George Papaprodromou trains Sneaker, who is likely to be outrun early and rally late under jockey Umberto Rispoli.
Bit’s Tiger Magic is a 4-for-6 speedster trained by Peter Milller with speed figures that have ascended each successive start. Bit’s Tiger Magic will not wear blinkers Sunday, for the first time.
“We’re going to a distance that could be on the outer limits of what she wants to do,” Miller said. “So why not have her a little more relaxed early? She trains just as well without [blinkers] as with them. I don’t think she needs them anymore.”
Bit’s Tiger Magic, assigned 119 pounds, could steal the California Distaff under jockey Juan Hernandez. Miller won the stakes with Love a Honeybadger in 2018, when it was run at five furlongs on dirt.
* Sunday's card features a $47,317 carryover in the $2 pick six after the bet went unhit Saturday. The sequence covers races 5-10, and the pool is estimated to exceed $350,000.
* Sunday's Sunset Six wager, which consists of the final three races from both Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita, will begin with a carryover of $93,586.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.