Huge Loss as Strike Smartly Dies
In another big loss to the South African breeding industry, the promising 12yo stallion Strike Smartly, who sired
two Gr1 winners in his first two crops, collapsed and died (31 Aug) at his Kimberley home, Mauritzfontein Stud.

“This was quite a dramatic morning and we’re not 100 percent sure what happened,” said a disappointed Gavin Schafer, stud manager of Mauritzfontein.
“As per custom we took him Strike Smartly out of his stable and into his paddock and he looked terribly well, as well as ever. He was full of beans, watching a few mares being led along for examination for covering tomorrow.
“He was standing probably 5m away from me. He was prancing up and down. He got on his hind legs and shook his head excitedly while I was looking at the mares. Jus a few minutes later he collapsed and died.”
Schafer said that the post mortem carried out on Strike Smartly showed an enlarged spleen which is consistent with heart failure or an acute viral infection, but added that, “he seemed to well and happy to be suffering from a virus.”

Strike Smartly, the son of Mr Prospector was just 12 years old and was quickly establishing himself as a top stallion. A Gr2 winner in Canada, Strike Smartly was one of the best bred horses ever to stand at stud in South Africa. Not only was he by one of the greatest stallions of all time, but Strike Smartly’s first two dams were both Broodmare Of The Year, as was his half-sister, champion racemare Dance Smartly. His full brother, Smart Strike, is a dual champion sire in the USA and his dam, Classy N Smart was a champion filly. This is the family of young SA sires Surging River and Sail From Seattle. Five members of this family, including Smart Strike, are inductees in the Canadian Hall Of Fame.

In the 2008/09 season, Strike Smartly topped the South African sires log as the Leading Sire by SW/winners % and Leading Sire by AEPR. He had been represented by a number of smart horses including SA Derby winner Bouquet-Garni and dual Gr1 winner Smart Banker. The pair gave their sire a rare Gr1 double last season when Smart Banker captured the Champions Challenge and Bouquet-Garni landed the Derby. Strike Smartly is also the sire of the impressive debut winner Two Tone and well-performed Robinson Crusoe and Prestic. He had sired five crops before his demise.
Schafer added: “”He was ideally suited to the South African breeding industry, proven in his first few crops and I believe his later crops will be exceptional because we gave him more speed mares, which he evidently needed. He’s also got the makings of becoming a good broodmare sire.”
Strike Smartly’s owner Bridget Oppenheimer was “distraught”, said Schafer, but taking the loss well.

3 Gr1 winners for Strike Smartly's full brother Smart Strike
At Belmont on Sunday Smart Strike - the full brother to Strike Smartly - nortched up 3 Gr1 winners and secured berths for the Breeders Cup race day.
Gr1 Preakness S winner Curlin gradually reeled in multiple Gr1 winner Lawyer Ron in the closing strides to prevail by a neck in the $765,000 Gr1 Jockey Club Gold Cup S on Sunday at Belmont Park.
The win cemented Curlin's spot in the $5m Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Gr1 Dodge in the new Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series.

Gr1 JOCKEY CLUB GOLD CUP S
Belmont Park, September 30, $765,000, 3yo up, 10f, fast, 2:01.20.
CURLIN, 122, Ch. c. 3, Smart Strike iSD-Sherriff's Deputy, by Deputy
Minister. Owner, Bolton, George, Stonestreet Stables, Padua Stables,
Midnight Cry Stable; breeder, Fares Farm Inc. (Ky.); trainer,
Steven M. Asmussen; jockey, Robby Albarado. $450,000.
Lifetime: 8-5-1-2, $2,402,800. $57,000 2005 KEESEP.

Multiple Gr1 winner English Channel powered through a narrow opening along the rail and accelerated
clear with an explosive turn of foot to post a convincing 21.4-length win in the $612,000 Joe Hirsch Turf
Gr1 Classic Invitational S on Sunday at Belmont Park.
The victory guaranteed English Channel a spot in the John Deere Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) on October 27 at Monmouth Park as part of the new Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series. The fiveyear- old Smart Strike colt finished fifth in the 2005 Breeders' Cup Turf and placed third in the Turf last year.
OE HIRSCH TURF CLASSIC INVITATIONAL S. (G1)
Belmont Park, September 30, $612,000, 3yo up, 12fT, firm, 2:25.73.
ENGLISH CHANNEL, 126, Ch. h. 5, Smart Strike iSD-Belva, by Theatrical
(Ire). Owner, James T. Scatuorchio; breeder, Keene Ridge Farm
(Ky.); trainer, Todd A. Pletcher; jockey, John R. Velazquez. $360,000.
Lifetime: 22-12-4-1, $3,699,028. $50,000 2003 KEESEP. Full to Sedgefield
(G2, $240,093).

Walter Downey's homebred Fabulous Strike spoiled the long-awaited return of Goldophin Racing's Gr1 winner Discreet
Cat on Sunday at Belmont Park when he shook free of runner-up Talent Search in upper stretch and continued unchallenged
to score by 5_ lengths in the $416,000 Gr1 Vosburgh S With the victory, Fabulous Strike earned
an automatic berth in the $2m Gr1 TVG Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct 27 at Monmouth Park in the
new Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series.

Gr1 VOSBURGH S
Belmont Park, September 30, $416,000, 3yo up, 6f, fast, 1:09.22.
FABULOUS STRIKE, 124, Dk b. or br. g. 4, Smart Strike iSD-Fabulous
Find, by Lost Code. Owner, Walter Downey; breeder, Tea Party Stable
Inc. (Pa.); trainer, Todd M. Beattie; jockey, Ramon A. Dominguez.
$240,000. Lifetime: 14-9-1-0, $632,832.

Curlin wins Preakness for Strike Smartly
PREAKNESS S. (G1)
Pimlico Race Course, May 19, $1,000,000, 3yo, 9.5f, fast, 1:53.46.
1- CURLIN, 126, Ch. c. 3, Smart Strike iSD—Sherriff’s Deputy, by Deputy Minister. Owner, Stonestreet Stables, Padua Stables, Bolton, George, and Midnight Cry Stables; breeder, Fares Farm Inc (Ky.); trainer, Steven M. Asmussen; jockey, Robby Albarado. $600,000. Lifetime: 5-4-0-1, $1,602,800. $57,000 2005 KEESEP.
2- Street Sense 126, Dk b. or br. c. 3, Street Cry (Ire) iSD—Bedazzle, by Dixieland Band. Owner, Jim Tafel LLC; breeder, James Tafel (Ky.); trainer, Carl A. Nafzger. $200,000.
3- Hard Spun 126, B. c. 3, Danzig—Turkish Tryst, by Turkoman. Owner, Fox Hill Farms Inc.; breeder, Michael Moran & Brushwood Stable (Pa.); trainer, J. Larry Jones. $110,000.
Margins: head, 4, 1 1/2; Odds: 3.40, *1.30, 4.10.
Also ran: C P West 126 ($60,000), Circular Quay 126 ($30,000), King of the Roxy 126, Mint Slewlep 126, Xchanger 126, Flying First Class 126.

Curlin's Cast of Characters
Derby winner Street Sense owned a clean story line. There was the sage 65-year-old trainer in Carl Nafzger, the trusted single owner in James Tafel and the local jockey as national hero that became Calvin Borel. Rooting for Street Sense was as easy as his running style.
With Curlin, it’s much less so.
Curlin is tremendously talented as the Preakness Stakes winner proved Saturday by hunting down Street Sense in what was the fastest and possibly best running in the 132-year history of the second jewel of the Triple Crown.
But Curlin is also a bundle of complicated contradictions, forcing you to find a way to separate the horse flesh from the human flesh.
Curlin’s owners are a large and controversial lot, a glossy group of multimillionaires with the green to chase their equine dreams. We’re not exactly talking Sackatoga Stables here, those lovable high school chums who owned 2003 Derby winner Funny Cide.
Instead, we have Jess Jackson, the white-haired Kendall-Jackson winery and Stonestreet Farms proprietor who, depending on your view, is either a courageous reformer in the area of horse sales or a sorehead of a newcomer who doesn’t know his place.
Then there’s Satish Sanan, the computer software baron, who has spent millions attempting to make a name for himself in the racing game. And don’t forget George Bolton, the chief financial officer of West End Capital, whose Baltimore roots — he grew up 10 miles from Pimlico — were overshadowed Saturday by the company he keeps.
Company that includes a pair of Central Kentucky lawyers both suspended from practicing law by the Kentucky Bar Association while being investigated on charges of misappropriating funds from a $200 million settlement in a class-action fen-phen lawsuit.
The 52-year-old Shirley Cunningham of Georgetown and 55-year-old William Gallion of Versailles owned Curlin as part of Midnight Cry Stables before they sold majority interest in the 3-year-old to Jackson, Sanan and Bolton for a reported $3.5 million. That’s the same Cunningham and Gallion who originally purchased Curlin for $57,000.
Smarty Jones this ain’t.
Now throw in trainer Steve Asmussen, who you can see on HBO’s Real Sports this month becoming agitated while answering questions about his numerous suspensions, including one six-month sentence in Louisiana when one of Asmussen’s horses tested positive for mepivacaine, a local anesthetic used to eliminate leg pain.
The black clouds are a shame, too, considering Curlin’s shining talent. The son of Smart Strike has needed just three months and five races to become not only a multiple Grade I winner but a classic champ.
“That is a heck of a horse,” the ever-gracious Nafzger said after losing on Saturday.
Nafzger’s horse is not too shabby either, but Street Sense will probably skip the Belmont on June 9 in favor of resting up for the Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
“Right now, I don’t think we probably will,” Nafzger told Pimlico officials yesterday when asked about the Belmont. “There’s not really any reason to go there right now.”
Curlin is expected to continue on to New York, however.
“This is the stage this horse deserves and those are the caliber of races he is intended for,” Asmussen said yesterday of the Belmont and the Travers. “It will be up to him physically, but that is the stage he deserves to be on. Our job is to make sure he’s prepared for it.”
Our job is to reconcile our questions about the connections with our appreciation for the horse. That might be the tougher of the two. - Lexington Herald

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