Page 134 - MAjestic v7

F E AT U R E
THE LATE RUNNER
The Kentucky Oaks victory was a typical Mike Smith
masterpiece. Over a sloppy Churchill Downs dirt track,
he let Abel Tasman settle last in the field during the long
run down the backstretch. Only as the field approached
the stretch turn did he take the daughter of Quality
Road outside rivals and ask her to run. Her response was
immediate and she powered home first by 1 1/4 lengths over
Daddys Lil Darling. Twelve months on, his display in the
Kentucky Derby aboard Justify was equally emphatic but
vastly different as he drove the chestnut up onto the speed, decided to ride her like Zenyatta.”
rated him to perfection, kicked clear on the home corner and
drove him to the line to the roars of an appreciative crowd. Smith also rode top mares Azeri and Royal Delta among
Smith had done those kinds of things before and he’d do
it again. Perhaps his most famous – and dramatic – come-
from-behind ride was on Arrogate in the 2017 Dubai World
Cup (G1), when the horse missed the break, started last and
still won, going away in the final 200m.
Mike Smith & Justify
史文夫与德比冠军马“正义”
132 MAjestic
“I still don’t believe that happened,” Smith said in a
recent interview. Arrogate, like Abel Tasman in her most
important wins, was trained by Bob Baffert.
But Smith often seems to have a special connection with
late-running fillies and mares. Think Zenyatta. The super
mare won 19 of 20 starts, almost all of them while coming
from last to first and almost all of them under Smith. The
tactics were so consistent and so successful that, Smith said,
when Arrogate strolled out of the gate last in Dubai, “I just
many others as he earned a bookcase full of honours, both
for his riding skills and his exemplary sportsmanship and
citizenship. He was inducted into the National Museum of
Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York,
in 2003.