By Jack Werk
When we at Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc. were planning the mating of the Smart Strike colt Lookin at Lucky (out if a Belong to Me mare) a few years ago, we were confident that Smart Strike and Belong to Me (both standing at Lane’s End) would work well together, even though there were no such stakes winners from this cross at the time. However, the Mr. Prospector/Danzig cross was an obviously potent combination.
- Lane’s End’s Smart Strike
We weren’t the only ones working with this idea, because the now-4-year-old Smart Strike colt Papa Clem, who won the G2 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita at 1 1/16 miles Saturday and the G3 Arkansas Derby last year, is bred exactly the same way! He was bred by his owner, Bo Hirsch, who was probably thinking along the same lines as we were. Great minds think alike!
I am joking, of course, because as anyone associated with breeding racehorses knows, getting a stakes winner is about one of the most statistically difficult things to do in racing! Your chances are helped a lot if you have a serious stallion to work with, and that’s exactly what Smart Strike is: A serious sire of racehorses! He stands for $75,000 in 2010, a major drop from his 2009 fee which was $125,000, and that means he’s great value this year! Don’t forget, this is the same stallion that led the sire list in 2007 and 2008 and was the leading sire of 2009 by US earnings. His son Curlin was also the Horse of the Year the last two years, in 2007 and 2008! Curlin now stands at Lane’s End alongside his sire and was recently represented by his first foal.
Smart Strike is the sire of 70 SWs, which is an incredible 9% stakes winners from foals – just the same percentage as Indian Charlie (my previous blog post), who stands for $70,000. A son of Mr. Prospector out of Canadian champion Classy ‘n Smart, by Smarten, Smart Strike won 6 of 8 starts, including the G1 Philip H. Iselin Handicap at 1 1/16 miles. He went to stud for a $30,000 fee but his sales horses were not that well received early on. Nevertheless, he did sire racehorses, and that’s what Smart Strike is really known for. His colts are especially good, and he can get you a champion 2-year-old like Lookin at Lucky, a classic-winning 3-year-old or champion older horse like Curlin, a top grass horse like English Channel, or top sprinters like Fabulous Find and Soaring Free! Interestingly, while Smart Strike’s 62 unrestricted SWs are divided equally between fillies (31) and colts (31), 7 of his 8 G1 winners are colts.
What I’ve found – and what horsemen have told me – is that the Smart Strikes are dead-game racehorses with “try,” and all the horses named above have exhibited this trait. In fact, they seem to consistently overcome the “flaws” that penalize them in the sales ring! As you would probably expect, a lot of Smart Strike’s SWs are out of Northern Dancer-line stallions because Smart Strike is a Mr. Prospector stallion. But did you know that the only inbreeding in Smart Strike’s pedigree is Nasrullah, 4×5!
Smart Strike is atypical for a Mr. Prospector stallion as his progeny take a little longer to mature and they love a route of ground. In fact, the average winning distance of his SWs is 8.6f. They are equally prolific on the dirt and turf (30 of his 62 have won on the turf) and they excel on the synthetics as well.
What made Danzig-line mares a natural choice to succeed with Smart Strike is that his half-sister is the great Canadian Danzig filly Dance Smartly! Smart Strike’s Canadian champion and horse of the year Soaring Free is out of a Danzig mare, and other Smart Strike GSWs bred this way after Lookin at Lucky and Papa Clem are G1 winner Shadow Cast; G2 winner Bel Air Beauty; and G3 winner High Strike Zone.