Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Smith to stay put for summer
By his count, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has undergone 11 coronavirus tests since the pandemic began earlier this year.
“I’ve had every one I can think of – throat, the nose, the antibody one,” he said. “I’ve taken them all.”
An extensive travel itinerary in recent months, in which Smith has ridden at Belmont Park, Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Monmouth Park, and Santa Anita, has led to the many tests, all negative.
Last Saturday at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, Smith won the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes with Authentic. Smith had two coronavirus tests last weekend.
“I was tested in Jersey on Saturday and when I came back here on Sunday,” Smith said on Wednesday from his summer base in Del Mar.
Del Mar resumes racing for the first time since July 12 on Friday, having canceled races from July 17-19 after a coronavirus outbreak among jockeys. Friday, Smith will ride at Del Mar for the first time this summer. He will be based there at least through August.
The track has ordered jockeys to remain at Del Mar because of the pandemic. Jockeys who leave to ride at another venue will not be allowed to ride again at the meeting, which runs through Sept. 7.
Last summer, Smith rode at Monmouth Park once and at Saratoga twice during the Del Mar summer meeting. There are no plans for a Saratoga visit this year.
“We can’t leave,” he said. If the regulations are not changed, Smith and other Del Mar-based jockeys will not be allowed to ride the final two days of the meeting on Sept. 6-7 if they travel to Churchill Downs for lucrative stakes on Sept. 4-5, Kentucky Oaks and Derby days.
Smith has nine mounts on Saturday’s 11-race program, more than usual for him.
“I ride quite a few,” he said. “I’m excited to get on some good horses. I’m going to try to have a good meeting.”
With a focus on Del Mar, Smith could easily surpass his 2019 summer win total of nine victories, which left him ninth in the jockey standings.
Saturday, Smith rides Ax Man in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles, a race that marks the California debut of Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old male of 2019 who won the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 29.
In the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf, Smith rides Over Attracted.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced Del Mar to race without spectators. It has changed the day-to-day routine for many jockeys, too. Currently, riders cannot work horses in the morning, which is a concern for Smith.
“I’d love to be able to work a few of my horses,” Smith said. “There are some horses, like Hard Not to Love and Honor A. P., I’d like to get on, and a few babies.”
Honor A. P. is scheduled to run in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes on Aug. 1, a final prep for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5. Hard Not to Love is a candidate for the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar on Aug. 2.
Smith said he is hopeful track officials will relax the ban on jockeys working horses. He suggested that replicating a plan in place at Santa Anita earlier this year – in which jockeys mounted horses for workouts in the paddock and brought them back there after exercise – could be utilized.
“Some of those horses we need to get on, especially if we can do it in a safe manner,” he said.
Until that policy changes, Smith will spend mornings exercising and preparing for afternoons of racing. He turns 55 on Aug. 10.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to stay healthy so I could keep going. I’m trying to stay extra fit and make fitness a way of life. It’s really paid off.”
Grade 1 winner Bolo retired
Bolo, the winner of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita in 2019 and three other stakes, has been retired after a series of disappointing performances in recent months.
Trainer Carla Gaines made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday.
“It is with pride, joy, and a heavy heart that we have decided it’s time to retire [Grade 1 winner] Bolo from racing,” Gaines wrote. “He is happy, healthy, and sound. He just doesn’t seem interested in racing anymore.”
Owned by the Golden Pegasus Racing partnership, which includes former Santa Anita chief executives Keith Brackpool and Tim Ritvo, Bolo won 6 of 23 starts and earned $978,572. He overcame a tendon injury that kept him off the track for all of 2018 to return to racing last year.
Bolo, who finished 12th behind American Pharoah in the 2015 Kentucky Derby, won the Shoemaker in a 32-1 upset in May 2019, the final win of his career.