Get Smokin (19-1) leads all the way, wins Kentucky Turf Cup

Franklin, Ky.

They were running like it was a Formula 1 grand prix Saturday at Kentucky Downs. Get the lead before the first turn, stay there the rest of the way, repel anyone trying to pass and take the checkered flag at the end.

Absent the checkered flag, that was exactly how it worked out for 6-year-old gelding Get Smokin in the Grade 2, $1.7 million Kentucky Turf Cup, a win-and-you’re-in qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“We’ve got to give Fernando de la Cruz credit,” assistant trainer David Carroll said after Get Smokin, a 19-1 long shot, raced out of the gate and into the lead on the way to a 1 3/4-length victory. “Unbelievable ride. I mean he just followed the instructions to a tee.”

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The instructions were ... ?

“Just take him to the lead, and see what happens,” de la Cruz said.

“Go to the front,” Carroll said, “and don’t get passed.”

Especially on a fast turf course that produced five gate-to-wire victories Saturday, another that was one early call from being a sixth and only one race in which the winner came from more than two lengths off the lead.

The only question for Get Smokin was whether he would get the 1 1/2 miles, a distance he never had been asked to go in 26 previous races.

In his last three starts before Saturday, the son of Get Stormy had early leads in the 1 1/16-mile Arlington (G3) at Churchill Downs, the 1 1/16-mile Wise Dan (G2) at Ellis Park and the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup at Ellis. In each case, Get Smokin faded late, finishing second, second and fourth in that order.

Somehow lead owner Harlan Malter got it in his head to go long.

“We had a conversation about two weeks ago,” trainer Mark Casse said by phone from Lexington, Ky. “We were talking about the different races. I said, ‘I don’t want to sprint him. We go a mile or a mile-and-a-half.’ And he goes, ‘I like the mile-and-a-half.’ I said, ‘Harlan, you are by far the craziest owner I have. But for once that’s not the craziest thing you’ve ever said.’ ”

What was Malter thinking?

“You think if you keep stretching him out farther, it’s going to be even harder for him to get it,” he said. “We looked at it the opposite way. We just needed this horse to be able to do what he does best. He gallops at a very high rate of speed, and he has a huge heart. We actually were kind of forcing him to do things he couldn’t do, meaning we were letting him stay too close, and the guys who could close on him were closing on him.”

This time Get Smokin was pushed into getting breathing room thanks to early urging from de la Cruz, who became his fourth jockey this year. The three-length lead he had after a 24.00-second quarter-mile was his biggest at a first call since he put seven lengths between himself and the rest of the field on the way to a second-place finish three years ago in the one-mile National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (G2) at Saratoga.

“It’s a mile-and-a-half,” de la Cruz said. “A long way to go. But the horse is a really nice horse. He just kept going, kept going.”

After a half-mile in 49.61 seconds, Get Smokin led by 2 1/2 lengths. After three quarters in 1:14.18, it was two lengths. The same after a mile in 1:37.99. It was still two lengths after getting to the quarter pole in 2:02.70.

By this point in the race, 8-year-old Spooky Channel (17-1) was coming. By this point in the day, he was not going to catch Get Smokin. Not on this course. He did, however, reel in Santin (4-1), who was in second for most of the first 1 3/8 miles.

“While Fernando got his lead, we also got the rail,” Spooky Channel’s trainer Jason Barkley said. “It was kind of six of one, a half-dozen of the other.”

With James Graham taking him a path to the less worn grass along the rail, Spooky Channel wound up a head better in the place photo than Santin, who in turn was a nose ahead of strong-closing, post-time favorite Red Knight (7-2) in fourth.

Get Smokin’s winning time was 2:28.66.

Yes, the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita is in sight. Not just for Get Smokin but also for Spooky Channel. They both figure to be long shots this fall at Santa Anita, where overseas markets show Japan standout Equinox (7-2), Juddmonte International (G1) winner Mostahdaf (7-2) and Saturday’s Irish Champion (G1) victor Auguste Rodin (11-2) as the most fancied, would-be invaders.

“I think at the Breeders’ Cup there’s going to be a little bit quicker pace,” said Barkley, who is giving up his stable to pursue something else in racing, but not before Spooky Channel’s year is done. “Easier cover, especially if (Get Smokin) is going to go and a few others that have speed. You can sit that second flight, hopefully, and just jump on the deep closers.”

Barkley, who never has had a Breeders’ Cup horse, said Spooky Channel would train up the $4 million race. Casse, a six-time winner in the annual championships, was not sure whether he would do the same with Get Smokin.

“We’ll have to talk to Harlan,” Casse said. “Let’s see how he comes back. I’m sure this was going to be a pretty taxing race on him, so we’ll see.”