By Joe Bianca
5th-GP, $40,000, Msw, 2-21, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:35.31, fm.
+SMART MISSION, f, 3, by Smart Strike
1st Dam: Misty Mission (Outstanding Broodmare &
SW-Can, $194,320), by Miswaki
2nd Dam: Hangin on a Star, by Vice Regent
3rd Dam: Hangin Round, by Stage Door Johnny
Click for the Equibase.com chart or Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
One day after unveiling 3-year-old filly Smart Mission to a scintillating, trouble-filled debut win that earned her “TDN Rising Star” status, trainer Malcolm Pierce already had his sights set on an elusive personal goal with his well-bred chestnut: the Woodbine Oaks. Despite a successful training career including myriad marquee wins, Pierce has never captured the crown jewel for 3-year-old Canadian fillies. Smart Mission, though, has him thinking big.
“Right now, she's the best horse in my barn for the Woodbine Oaks if she takes to the Tapeta,” a glowing Pierce said from his wintertime base in Palm Meadows. “If not, the 3rd leg of our Triple Tiara, the Wonder Where, is a mile-and-a-quarter on turf and I'd have to think I'd be looking very good in a race like that.”
The Samuel family's Sam-Son Farm, the owner and breeder of Smart Mission, has won the Woodbine Oaks a record seven times, but never with Pierce at the helm. Smart Mission showed plenty on Sunday to suggest she could be the special sophomore filly Pierce has been waiting for.
After getting squeezed back badly at the break of the mile turf test and still with only one horse beaten heading into the far turn, Smart Mission unleashed a huge, wide advance around the final bend. It would have been understandable for the first-time starter to flatten out in the stretch, but instead she switched leads on cue and sustained her powerful run to catch and pass clear-leading favorite Akron Gold to win as much the best in a sharp 1:35.31.
“I thought, 'here's a nice filly that I thought had a really good chance today and she's eliminated leaving the gate,'” Pierce recalled. “If she gets up and runs third or fourth, you ought to be happy … I was very impressed, it takes a pretty special horse to overcome that.”
Pierce says his filly came out of the race in good order and will be pointed for a first-level allowance try on Woodbine's newly-installed Tapeta track in pursuance of his Oaks goal.
“We'll send her up to the Sam-Son farm/training center in Ocala, freshen her up for a few weeks and then take her up the road,” he noted. The 59-year-old trainer hopes that road and this filly lead him to Oaks glory once and for all.
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