Expert Pick of the Week: 2025 Smarty Jones Stakes
Jan 02, 2025
Coal Battle (left) descends upon Speed King in the Springboard Mile (Photo by Dustin Orona Photography/Remington Park)
A cast of eight newly turned three-year-olds will travel 1 1/16 miles on the Oaklawn Park dirt in Saturday’s $250,000 Smarty Jones S. The 2025 Road to the Kentucky Derby challenge series event will reward the top-five finishers with qualifying points on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis. Kale’s Angel was a dominant winner of the Advent S. while making his dirt debut last time and will be difficult to upend with any improvement off of that one. He is the Expert Pick of the Week.
Trained by Peter Miller, the son of sharp young sire Complexity graduated on the lawn in his second lifetime try prior to running third in the Zuma Beach S. (G3) on the weeds at Del Mar. The $150,000 two-year-old purchase looked the part on the dirt most recently and I feel that the added distance will be well within his scope on this occasion. Ramon Vazquez will retain the mount and have the bay forcing the pace from the opening bell.
Trainer Brad Cox looks to win another Smarty Jones with Hot Property. ✍️ https://t.co/OBqPxzKzUl
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) January 1, 2025
Hot Property went long at first asking and led at every call en route to a fine first-out victory at Fair Grounds. The Brad cox trainee earned a strong 100 Brisnet Late Pace figure in his tally, and the colt is bred to be a good one with seemingly no distance limitations going forward. The Medaglia d’Oro sophomore, who is a half-brother to 2017 Black-Eyed Susan S. (G2) queen Actress, has posted four nice morning drills in the interim and will have Flavien Prat in the silks.
Coal Battle was full of late energy in taking the Springboard Mile S. at Remington Park most recently and is 3-for-3 on the dirt in his lifetime. The dark bay son of Coal Front has shown nice improvement throughout his career and is also proven at a route of ground for conditioner Lonnie Briley. The Kentucky-bred colt will be unhurried in the early stages before putting in his best work late beneath Juan Vargas.
Expert Pick
An exacta with #1 Kale’s Angel on top of #6 Hot Property and #8 Coal Battle in the 2025 Smarty Jones Stakes is the Best Bet of the Week.
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