NEWS
Smarty Deb takes unlikely route to Breeders’ Cup
Posted: Monday, October 22, 2007 4:43 PM
by Jeff Lowe
In a typical late October, Doris Harwood would be devoting her attention to yearling preparation, but Smarty Deb is far from a typical member of Harwood’s Washington-based stable.
Since early October, Harwood and Smarty Deb have been nearly 2,400 miles away from home, based at Monmouth Park to prepare for the $2-million Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). The undefeated Smart Strike filly will be the first Washington-based horse to compete in the Breeders’ Cup since Maharesred, who finished tenth in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).
Harwood grew up in Washington and has trained there her entire career after a stint as a jockey. She finished fourth among all trainers at Emerald Downs this year with 34 wins.
“We’re very proud to be representing our racetrack and our horsemen,” said Harwood, 55. “There are a lot of good horsemen in Washington, and you have to have the best horse and have them in the condition to win those races because it’s tough racing there. It’s the only spot, so the best horses and the best horsemen [in Washington] are there. It’s not easy racing, they just don’t have as big of purses as they have elsewhere around the country.”
Harwood has been on an upswing since she first received horses three years ago from Jere Paxton’s Northwest Farms, the owner-breeder of Smarty Deb. Before this year, Harwood had nine stakes victories in her career. She has 12 in 2007 alone, all of them at Emerald, which set a track record.
Smarty Deb and her older half sister, Shampoo, accounted for seven of the 12.
“[The difference] has been the quality of the horses,” Harwood said. “There’s no doubt about it. They all landed in my barn at the same time. … [Smarty Deb] is the best one that I’ve had. Her sister [Shampoo] is an awfully nice horse, but I think her little sister might be one notch better.”
Harwood said she first began “dreaming” about the Breeders’ Cup this summer, after Smarty Deb kicked off her career by winning a maiden special weight race against males at 4 ½ furlongs and the Angie C. Stakes at six furlongs against fillies on July 15.
Confident that Smarty Deb would continue to improve with added distance, Harwood reached out to Breeders’ Cup Ltd. to ask whether the filly would have any shot of cracking the field for the Juvenile Fillies with no points and coming from Emerald Downs.
“I wanted to know if I was crazy for thinking about it,” Harwood said.
Smarty Deb strengthened her case with easy victories in the Barbara Shinpoch Stakes on September 2 and Gottstein Futurity against males on September 29.
Days later, Harwood shipped Smarty Deb and a stablemate to Monmouth. The rest of the 50 horses she had at Emerald have been turned out, which is typical for this time of year, since Washington racing is dormant until late April.
So instead of focusing on yearlings, Harwood is honed in on a $2-million race, more than 20 times the value of the Gottstein Futurity, which equaled the richest victory of her career.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “[Paxton] has called me more in the last month than he has in the last three years. That says a lot because he’s not a real public person. I’ve documented my time here with a digital camera and so I’m e-mailing all these photos back of the track and our training and the gate work to the folks that I know and particularly to Jere and his wife. They’ve just had a ball, so it’s really been a lot of fun.”
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
