4/11/07 - Mike Smith Returning to Southern California Circuit
COURTESY OF THE BLOOD HORSE
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith plans to ride on the Southern California circuit beginning with the final week of the current Santa Anita racing season, agent Brad Pegram confirmed Friday.
The 41-year-old jockey had been riding on the East Coast for nearly a year after spending the previous five seasons riding in California.
“He just likes California,” Pegram said of Smith’s decision to return to the Golden State. “He’ll be here, probably, the last week of Santa Anita. We haven’t finalized the dates yet, but he’ll be here full time by the first week of Hollywood Park.”
The Hollywood Park spring/summer meet gets underway April 25.
Smith, who was inducted into Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2003 and earned the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top jockey in 1993 and 1994, piloted Giacomo to victory in the 2005 Kentucky Derby (gr. I), and was also the regular pilot aboard 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull and 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri, as well as classic winner Prairie Bayou. Other leading mounts he had include Vindication, Skip Away, Unbridled’s Song, Inside Information, Paradise Creek, and Devil His Due.
In 1993 Smith set an all-time record for stakes victories with 62 and was the nation’s leading money-winner with earnings over $14 million. The following year he broke his own stakes record mark, reaching the winner’s circle on 68 added-money winners. His 10 career wins in the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships makes him the third leading jockey in the 23-year history of the event.
According to Pegram, Smith’s return is good timing, considering the recent defections of top jockeys Garrett Gomez and Corey Nakatani, who will be riding regularly in Kentucky over the next few weeks.
“Obviously, it leaves a lot of open horses and we’re getting a lot of support from (trainers), especially John Shirreffs and Jim Cassidy.”
4/10/07 - WELCOME BACK TEAM GIACOMO
A warm and unexpected welcome to some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in racing. Only two years after Giacomo’s stunning upset victory in the Run for the Roses, here comes his half-brother, Tiago, trying to make some history of his own. Tiago’s Giacomo-like victory at odds of 29-1 in the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) will bring back to Churchill Downs the familiar team of trainer John Shirreffs, owners Jerry and Ann Moss, Shirreffs' wife Dottie Ingordo, who is the Moss’ racing manager, and jockey Mike Smith. In today’s world of high-powered entrepreneur horse owners and massive training operations, we welcome a return visit from the Nelsons and the Cleavers to provide a warm, family-like atmosphere.
Tiago, as some might remember, was involved in that wild and wacky maiden race back on Jan. 21, in which he was forced out way past the middle of the track by a bolting Spankey Come Home. He cut back to the inside of Spankey and closed in on the leaders. He stuck his head in front, only to get nipped right on the wire by none other than Spankey Come Home. The subsequent no-brainer disqualification provided Tiago with the only victory of his career going into the Santa Anita Derby.
He had followed that maiden race up with an inexplicable seventh-place finish in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. II), after which Shirreffs took the blinkers off the colt and worked him a bullet six furlongs in 1:12 1/5 at Hollywood Park.
The Santa Anita Derby drew a field of 10 and lacked a standout, with most of the field given some kind of chance. Tiago, like his brother, lagged at the back of the field early, and then uncorked a big move around the turn, while saving ground. After straightening into the stretch, Smith must have felt as if it were the 2005 Kentucky Derby all over again, as Tiago came charging up the inside to defeat the Pletcher-trained King of the Roxy, who looked like a sure winner at the eighth pole. But the Team Valor colt, coming off only one sprint this year, was a tired horse and couldn’t resist Tiago’s late run. With this race under his belt, he should have a lot more foundation under him for his next start, which likely will be the Preakness (gr. I)
Although the closing eighth of :13 1/5 was just OK, the three previous splits of :23 4/5, :23 3/5, and :23 4/5 were strong, suggesting that Tiago is getting good right now, and despite having only four career starts (remember that no Derby winner had that few starts since Exterminator in 1918), he could be ready for a peak effort on May 5. Whether that is good enough to compete with the leading contenders we have no idea, which just adds to the uncertainty of the entire Derby picture.
Tiago doesn’t possess that long, sweeping stride of his brother, but he has a smooth, beautiful way of moving. And if you liked Giacomo (by Holy Bull) at a mile and a quarter, you’re going to love his baby brother, who is by Pleasant Tap.
9/4/06 - Noble Stella, Smith patient en route to Glens Falls Handicap triumph
Courtesy of the Thoroughbred Times Today
Gary Tanaka’s Noble Stella (Ger), under a masterful ride by jockey Mike Smith, won the $112,100 Glens Falls Handicap (G3) by a comfortable two lengths on Monday at Saratoga
Race Course. The 13⁄8-mile turf contest on Saratoga’s closing day attracted a field of nine fillies
and mares.
Noble Stella assumed her preferred position in front of the field leaving the gate but Sabellina soon charged past to take the lead, opening up as much as five lengths
on the backstretch. Smith was content to let Noble Stella track the leader from second until reaching the final turn. Moving to the outside, Noble Stella quickly closed the gap, drew even with Sabellina, and took command through the stretch, covering the distance in 2:16.02 over good turf.
9/3/06
- Breeders' Cup winning trainer Hauswald to become
Smith's agent
Phil Hauswald
will put his training career on hold to become the jockey
agent for Racing Hall of Famer Mike Smith when the fall
meeting at Belmont Park begins September 8.
The 47-year-old
Hauswald conditioned Epitome to a win in the 1987 Breeders'
Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes (G1) at Hollywood Park. A native
of New Albany, Indiana, Hauswald saddled the Kentucky Derby
favorite Demons Begone in '87, but the Arkansas Derby (G1)
winner bled during the race and was pulled up.
Hauswald
conditioned Banker's Lady to a trio of Grade 1 wins from
1988-'89. His most recent graded stakes victory was with
Middlesex Drive in the 1999 Kelso Handicap (G2) at Belmont
Park.
Hausewald took out his trainer's license in 1985 after working
under Racing Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey for five
years. He has sent out one winner in from 34 starters this
season.
“I
have to really thank the Mosses for sticking with me. You
know, you get beat a couple of imes and a lot of people
want to make a change. But they stuck with me and we got
the job done. He might have redeemed himself today—and
he might have redeemed me, too.”
Racing Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith after
riding Jerry and Ann Moss’s Giacomo—winner of
the 2005 Kentucky Derby (G1)—to victory in the $300,000
San Diego Handicap (G2) on Saturday at Del Mar. Giacomo
was winless in four starts since his 50.30-to-1 upset in
the Derby
Giacomo's First Win Since Derby a Nail-Biter
by Blood-Horse Staff
Date Posted: 7/22/2006 10:09:03 PM
Giacomo tallied his first victory since capturing the 2005 Kentucky Derby (gr. I), closing from far back under regular rider Mike Smith to defeat Preachinatthebar by a head in a rousing finish to the $300,000 San Diego Handicap (gr. II) at Del Mar Saturday.
The 4-year-old gray colt was making his first start in the 1 1/16-mile San Diego since finishing a well-beaten fifth – 11 1/2 lengths behind Lava Man – in the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I). Trainer John Shirreffs is pointing the son of Holy Bull to the $1 million Pacific Classic (gr. I) at Del Mar Aug. 20, where he could face Lava Man again. The San Diego and Pacific are part of a four-race series that Shirreffs hopes will end with Giacomo in the Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (gr. I) at Churchill Downs in November.
Most thought the San Diego distance was too short for Giacomo and that he would need the race. That, coupled with a lack of early zip in the seven-horse line-up, allowed the late-running Giacomo to go off as the 9-2 fourth choice. He stopped the clock in a strong time of 1:42.
"I'm just so proud of this horse. He's just amazing," said Smith, the only rider Giacomo has had in his 13-race career. "He's a big horse and once he got rolling, I didn't want to stop him so I took the overland route.
"It reminded me of the Derby. He got up just in time."
With Spellbinder scratched earlier in the day, it was anyone's guess which horse would set the pace. It turned out to be Preachinatthebar, who set out at a surprisingly fast clip (:22 4/5, :46, 1:09 4/5) while pressured by Rathor, the slight 5-2 favorite. That set things up nicely for Giacomo, who had one horse beaten on the far turn but knocked off his rivals one by one before getting to the wire just in front of Preachinatthebar in the final stride.
It was 2 1/4 lengths back to Papi Chullo, ridden by Norberto Arroyo Jr., in third, but they were disqualified and placed last for shutting off Rathor in the stretch. That moved Southern Africa and Alex Solis up to third.
Giacomo has come in for some harsh criticism as a one-hit wonder since his Derby win (Jerry Moss, his original co-owner and breeder, is one of the founders of A&M Records), but he'd only lost four times since. He ran third behind, nearly 10 lengths behind Afleet Alex, in the Preakness (gr. I), then came out of the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), in which he finished seventh, with bone chips in an ankle and knee. After surgery, he returned eight months later to finish third in Santa Anita's Strub (gr. II) prior to his defeat in the Big 'Cap.
Prior to the Derby Giacomo had won just once in seven starts, although he had been quite competitive in all of those races. Giacomo, who is now owned in partnership by Mr. and Mrs. Moss and Stronach Stables, improved his record to 3-2-4 in 13 starts with earnings of $2,202,316
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