Northwest Hoof Prints

WTBOA Sale Graduate Smiling Tiger
Earns Second Grade 1 Victory
Benoit Photo

    A Grade 1-placed stakes winner at two, Smiling Tiger took on older runners in the six-panel Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) run at Del Mar on August 1 and came away with gate-to-wire victory. Finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind him in second place in the sprint was Australian Horse of the Year Scenic Blast (Aus). Grade 1 winner E Z’s Gentleman was another 3 1/4 lengths back in third place. Victor Espinoza was aboard the winner who gave trainer Jeff Bonde his first Grade 1 victory. Smiling Tiger earned $150,000 for his efforts for the partnership of Alan Klein and Philip Lebherz. Final race time was 1:09.21.
    Smiling Tiger next finished third in the seven-panel, $300,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes (G1) at Del Mar on August 28.
    The Hold That Tiger colt earned another $150,000 after he took the $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes (G1), pictured above, again over older runners, at Oak Tree at Hollywood Park on October 9. Double Hall of Fame rider Russell Baze was aboard the chestnut colt for the six-furlong race run in 1:09.37. Smiling Tiger improved his record to 5-0-4 from nine starts and has earned $519,864. Finishing a half-length back in second was four-year-old Supreme Summit, who out-paced the $2.40-to-one favorite, five-year-old E Z’s Gentleman, by three-quarters of a length. The Kentucky-bred Smiling Tiger has competed exclusively in stakes races since winning his maiden special weight debut.
    Bred by Dr. Rodney Orr, Smiling Tiger is the third foal out of Orr’s Shandra Smiles, a daughter of Cahill Road who won the 2001 Federal Way Handicap for the Silverton, Oregon, family practitioner. Consigned by Orr to the 2008 WTBOA September sale with agent Halvorson Bloodstock Services LLC, Smiling Tiger was purchased by Bonde, as agent, for $40,000.