West Will Power clocked early fractions of 24.30 and 47.80 seconds and 1:11.50, and Smile Happy was being wound up to pounce. I was kind of surprised that he was traveling better than West Will Power to his inside.” “When I went around the first turn, and I felt like we went pretty slowly, he was cruising with his ears up. “My horse has not faced these kind of (older) horses yet in his career,” Hernandez said. That way we don’t have any issues with trying to get him back moving again.”Īfter looking a little toey in the new, circular paddock, Smile Happy loaded uneventfully and broke alertly, quickly getting in stride to race no more than a half-length behind early pacesetter and post-time favorite West Will Power (3-5). “This is the first time I’ve ridden him in a while, but what I’ve figured is after we warm him up, we just take him and bring him right behind the gate. “Kenny has kind of figured out that we bring him over with a lip chain and the halter,” said jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., who raced Smile Happy for the first time since a debut win in October 2021. “We’ve got a little trick to take him to the gate, because he’s known to back up, and he doesn’t want to come to the gate.” “We learned a lesson in the last run,” McPeek said, referring to a third-place finish April 1 in the Oaklawn Mile Handicap (G3). McPeek said it was beforehand when the sport’s newest millionaire displayed, for a change, a less than ornery disposition. The 4-year-old Runhappy colt stalked the early lead for the first three-quarters of a mile before moving in front in the second turn en route to a two-length victory over Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) winner Art Collector (7-2). In three tries Smile Happy (7-1) never has lost at that distance, winning again Friday afternoon in the Grade 2, $600,000 Alysheba Stakes on a sunny, 74-degree afternoon at Churchill Downs. “I think the last couple of races, we kind of figured his number.” “He’s tricky to deal with sometimes,” his trainer Kenny McPeek said.
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