Show Court Pulls Smithwick Upset
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Show Court (outside) duels to the wire with Iranistan to win the Smithwick
Even with a four-day postponement, Saratoga Race Course's $175,000 A. P. Smithwick Memorial Handicap (NSA-G1) shaped up as a contest of youth versus experience. Youth was represented by Hudson River Stables' Iranistan, a 4-year-old who had not been headed in his three jumps starts for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard.
Experience was just about everyone in the remainder of the seven-horse field, from grade 1 winner All the Way Jose, also trained by Sheppard, to multiple grade 1-placed Modem, to grade 2 winner Personal Start, a late bloomer at age 7.
Also in that group was Mark W. Buyck's Show Court, at 9 the oldest horse in the field and something of a late bloomer himself. The Irish-bred had graduated from the novice ranks a year ago in Saratoga's Jonathan Kiser Novice Stakes. He made two subsequent grade 1 starts and came home sixth in both of them.
Saratoga is the place where anything can happen and often does. Ridden confidently by Michael Mitchell, Show Court blasted to the lead entering Saratoga's homestretch July 29, tussled with a game Iranistan in midstretch, and won by a length at hearty odds of 14-to-1.
Iranistan, favored at 11-to-10 and showing no signs of inexperience, jumped well in his grade 1 debut and continued gamely to the finish line, but he was no match for the winner trained by Arch Kingsley Jr.
A South Carolina-based horseman who has won at Saratoga both as a jockey and trainer, Kingsley prepped the Vinnie Roe gelding with a third in a Suffolk Downs flat race for hurdlers July 8. Mitchell, who rode Show Court at Suffolk, was back in the saddle after winning the Kiser with him last July.
At the flag start, Magalen O. Bryant's Personal Start jumped out to the lead ahead of overseas invader Oskar Denarius and Iranistan, ridden by Darren Nagle. Winner of the Virginia Gold Cup's David Semmes Memorial Steeplechase Stakes (NSA-G2) May 5, Personal Start led the way past the last of eight fences.
With five furlongs remaining to the finish line, Personal Start began to tire, and Iranistan took up the chase. Show Court, third at the last fence, moved up easily on the inside, reached the leaders leaving the turn, and took the lead early in the stretch.
Iranistan, urged forward vigorously by Nagle, fought on, but Show Court had the answer and slowly expanded his advantage in the final furlong. He ran the Smithwick's 2 1/16 miles in 3:49 flat on turf rated as good.
Mitchell, an English-born jockey who had a successful stint riding in New Zealand, won the Smithwick for the second straight year. Last year, he had been aboard 28.50-to-1 Swansea Mile.
The A. P. Smithwick, postponed from July 26, is named for the Racing Hall of Fame jockey known universally as Paddy. He was the National Steeplechase Association's champion jockey five times in the 1950s and early 1960s. His son Patrick Smithwick presented the winner's trophy to Kingsley.