Smooth Like Strait

And so another cycle opens, bringing all the usual dilemmas. To assist their resolution--albeit the exercise seldom fails to entail a degree of provocation, sometimes even offense--today we commence our annual quest for value among Kentucky stallions. This time round, value feels likely to prove quite elusive. With the middle market increasingly porous, stud fees overall are at a challenging level. If they were driven up by a long bull run in international bloodstock, that appears to be tapering away and there's evidently going to be quite a lag before...

War Horse Place has secured the opportunity to stand GI Preakness S. hero Rombauer (Twirling Candy) for $6,000 LFSN, the breeding operation said in a release Wednesday. Bred and campaigned by John and Diane Fradkin, Rombauer placed as a juvenile in the GI American Pharoah S. at Santa Anita before finishing third along the Derby Trail in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. He then won the second leg of the Triple Crown at Old Hilltop before finishing third in the GI Belmont S. Joining him will be French group...

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...

Owner Michael Cannon woke up on Memorial Day with a gut feeling. Cannon Thoroughbreds was going to win a Grade I that day. His inkling didn't come without good reason. The stable's leading earner Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) would be attempting to defend his title in the GI Shoemaker Mile and was slated as the 4-5 morning-line favorite. Of course as anyone in this business can attest, favoritism doesn't secure a trip to the winner's circle no matter how small the odds. So while Smooth Like Strait had to...

Cannon Thoroughbreds' Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) will attempt to defend his title in the GI Shoemaker Mile--a Win and You're In event for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile--when he faces five rivals in the Santa Anita contest Monday. The 5-year-old, the 4-5 morning-line favorite, was runner-up in four graded events following last year's Shoemaker, setting the pace before getting past late by Space Blues in the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Mile. Making his 2022 debut, he set the pace before ending up third in a blanket finish in...

The owner of some very solid West Coast form, Count Again (Awesome Again) nevertheless projects to be at least a little bit forgotten from a pari-mutuel perspective in a high-class renewal of the GI Maker's Mark Mile, the Good Friday feature at Keeneland. A maiden winner during this track's fall meet in 2019 when under the care of Neil Howard, the bay won the 10-furlong GIII Singspiel S. for trainer Gail Cox in 2020, but has been kept between eight and nine panels since being switched to the barn of...

For obvious reasons, Mike Cannon has enjoyed the run that Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) is on. It's not just that he's become a Grade I winner this year, has earned $933,823 in his career or that he is the morning line favorite in Saturday's GII Eddie Read S. at Del Mar. That matters to Cannon, but maybe not as much as the fact that the horse's success has allowed him to pump a large sum of money into a charity he supports, The Special Operations Care Fund (SOC-F). While...

Saturday's GI Eddie Read S. at Del Mar brings together arguably the Southern California circuit's best middle-distance horse in the form of LNJ Foxwoods' United (Giant's Causeway) and Cannon Thoroughbreds' Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute), clearly best at a mile, but who has run with merit over the nine-furlong trip as well. United, runner-up in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Turf over a mile and a half, made last year's Eddie Read the third of a three-race winning streak and he added a victory in the 10-furlong GI John Henry...

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...

Hit the Road (More Than Ready) struck a blow for the locals, parlaying a perfect trip into a stirring short-neck victory in Saturday's GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. at Santa Anita. Drawn in gate two with the visiting Florent Geroux in the irons, Hit the Road found the perfect spot in the box seat, as Flying Scotsman (English Channel) sped across from his outside barrier to supplant favored Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute). The pace was sensible through the middle stages, with positions largely unchanged, and Hit the Road...

Ride a Comet (Candy Ride {Arg}) rides a four-race win streak into his first try at the highest level in Saturday's GI Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita. Starting off his hot streak with a victory in the GII Del Mar Derby in September of 2018, the blue-blooded bay was on the sidelines for 25 months and returned with an optional claimer score on the Woodbine synthetic Oct. 16. Capturing the GII Kennedy Road S. over that oval Nov. 21, he won the GIII Tropical Turf S. back on the...

Cannon Thoroughbreds' Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) is the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the GII Mathis Brothers Mile at Santa Anita Saturday. The Mike McCarthy trainee, first or second in five of six starts so far this year, won the Oct. 18 GII Twilight Derby and missed by just a head when second in the Nov. 28 GI Hollywood Derby last time out. Three Diamond Farms' Field Pass (Lemon Drop Kid), winner of the July 12 GIII Transylvania S. at Keeneland, was third in the Twilight Derby and returns to...