Get Smokin Too Hot to Handle in Seek Again

Entering the $100,000 Seek Again Stakes for 4-year-olds and up going one mile on Belmont Park's Widener turf course, trainer Tom Bush said he was optimistic Get Smokin  would benefit from a more compact schedule between starts. The ability to get in a rhythm paid off, as the Get Stormy   gelding led through every point of call and held off 9-5 favorite Flavius  to post a three-quarters-of-a-length score May 23.

Get Smokin, who won the Feb. 6 Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T), ran eighth after a nearly two-month respite in the April 9 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes (G1T). Bush said Get Smokin can better demonstrate his ability when wheeling back in just five or six weeks, and the schedule adjustment resulted in his second win in three starts of his 4-year-old campaign. 

Get Smokin led throughout under Junior Alvarado, turning back pace-chasing Flavius after setting comfortable fractions of :24.25 and :48.61 over the firm turf. He then threw down subsequent quarters in :23.17 and :22.18 to complete a mile in 1:33.96.

"He's very quick," Alvarado said. "If anyone else wants the lead, they have to work very hard. He broke sharp today again, which makes my job easy. I just had to nurse him along. Turning for home, I knew I had plenty of horse left and he gave me that nice kick that he has. 

"You can never get too excited until you cross the wire first, but I was very happy with the pace I was going with him," he added. "He was traveling comfortable enough that I knew he'd have a kick at the end."

Bush, who also trained Get Stormy to nine stakes wins from 2009-12, said the pace set up well for Get Smokin.

"He's dangerous on the front end, that's for sure," Bush said. "When they're loping along like that and they aren't using themselves too much, you're always happy to see that. I knew they'd be laying a little closer, too, since we were the only speed, but they couldn't get by him. It was a terrific effort." 

Owned by Mary Abeel Sullivan Revocable Trust, Get Smokin ($10.80) won for the third time in four Belmont starts. He won the Hill Prince Stakes (G2T) in October.

"Junior was saying after the race that he would love for this horse to have a target and just lay second or third, but he's so good leaving the gate that you can't take the gate away from him," Bush said. "This is what we were looking for today. That's the class of the horse. He didn't get discouraged and that's what good horses do."

Bush said the effort could set him up for a start in the June 20 Poker Stakes (G3T) at one mile on the Belmont Turf. 

Flavius edged Tell Your Daddy  by a nose for second. Delaware , Decorated Invader , Tiberius Mercurius , Olympic Runner , and Epic Dreamer  completed the order of finish.

Bred in Kentucky by Hurstland Farm and James Greene Jr., Get Smokin is one of two winners out of the Smoke Glacken  mare Hookah Lady . Another foal, Bottom Deck  (Alternation  ), placed in a maiden claiming race at Gulfstream Park in March.

The dam also has a 2-year-old full sister to Get Smokin named She's Stormy and foaled a Vino Rosso   colt this year.

Sullivan, with Taproot Bloodstock as agent, purchased Get Smokin for $11,000 from Hurstland's consignment to the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale. From 14 starts, Get Smokin holds a 4-3-2 record and has earned $376,040.