The Red Smith Stakes at 1.5M on the turf for 2021 finds a brisk, sunny fall day at Acqueduct.
Chad Brown's incredible statistic for layoffs, on turfs, in stakes make Serve the King an instant favorite (3-1 ML) A horse with possibilities that has some excuses for recent median runs is Correlli (at 12-1 ML). Someone I see as an outsider (5-1 ML), but in fact a solid second choice at post time is Clement's Soldier Rising. Channel Cat (4-1 ML) by English Channel has had a few long campaigns but is a board hitter or more at this distance.
Johnny V on Channel Cat takes to the front as expected, without much pressure, leads the first quarter at a moderate 24 and 4/5ths, followed by Price Talk and Tide of the Sea... in the middle ranks are Serve the King ridden by Irad Ortiz, Value Engineering ridden by Dylan Davis and others. And trailers were Manny Franco on Corelli and Jose Ortiz on Soldier Rising. The half was 50 sec at which point Castelano on Shamrocket made a brief run at the front, Serve the King was 5 lengths off and Soldier Rising was still at the back of the pack.
Coming around the final turn No Word tries to get passed Channel Cat. Corelli is winding up for one of his now patented mild bids (he will end up 6th). Serve the King is about three wide on that turn and has a clear sail forward, and the engine to close the gap as the 1 M and 1/4 mark is timed at 2:04 and 3/5ths. Further wide Soldier Rising is closing the gap too. Asks John Imbriale: Can Channel Cat hold off Serve the King? The answer with a whoosh is no, but just by a nose, as Serve the King wins, with the 1M and 1/2 timed at 2:16 or so. Timing is everything in these long turf races and Irad had timing, horse and position on this day.
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