Great broke the high in the $98,000 I’m Smokin Stakes on September 6 at Del Mar and never looked back, scoring three lengths in the six-furlong feature for California-bred colts. The win gave the breed its third California smoke his first winner.
Bodacious’s final time for the six furlongs on the dirt track was rated a fast 1:10.17. The winner, son of the bettor Rags Alliance Smokem stallion, owned by Griffin Stables, Terry Lovingier and Paul Sabesky.
Lovingier, owner of Lovacres Ranch, is the primary partner and breeder of Bodacious. Lovingier also breeds and co-owns Smokem.
Bodacious is ridden by Tyler Baze and trained by Jorge Periban. The dark brown or tan foal is out of Bodemeister The mare My Love Magnet won two of her four starts and earned $93,400. She paid $8.40 to win.
“The first time I ran the horse, he ran with the blinders on and got hit from both sides by a couple of other horses and I think he was a little scared. So today I took the blinders off and it worked,” Periban said. “He’s a good horse. When he came out of the gate, I saw him focus more and I said, ‘This is the time.’ The horse was ready to go and I was lucky today.”
I’m Smokin’ is part of the Golden State Series, which features 35 races across the state with a total purse of $4.45 million. This is the eighth and final Cal-bred stakes race to be held at Del Mar this summer.
Smokem was bred in California and is a descendant of the 3rd place winning Smoke Glacken mare, One Smokin’ Lady. Smokem won the Specialty Young Horse Race at Del Mar and finished second in four races in five starts in his career.
Smokem entered the stud at Lovacres Ranch in Warner Springs, California in 2019. His stud fee has remained at $5,000 since his introduction. Going into Friday’s race, Smokem was ranked fifth in the California third-crop stud list.
Video: I am Smokin S. (BT)
This press release has been edited for content and style by the BloodHorse team.
