Monmouth Park: Get Smokin goes for 2nd United Nations win

At the advanced age of 8, Get Smokin will be looking to light up the Monmouth Park turf course once again in an attempt to defend his title in the Grade 2, $600,000 United Nations on Saturday’s Haskell Stakes undercard. The 72nd running of the United Nations drew a field of 12.

Get Smokin, who is co-owned by Ironhorse Stable, Blackridge Stables, T-N-T Equine Holdings, and Saratoga Seven Racing Partners, blasted out of the gate in the 2024 edition of the race under jockey Fernando De La Cruz and never looked back as he completed the 1 3/8-mile distance in 2:12.57 on firm footing.

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“He went to the front, went fast and went on with it. We remember Presious Passion (who took the 2008 and 2009 editions gate-to-wire). That is our horse’s game, so we’re not going to re-invent the wheel at Monmouth Park,” said Harlan Malter of Ironhorse Racing Stable.  “He’s his own horse, definitely. If he had a theme song, it would be ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra. He’s going to do what he’s going to do, and he’s going to run his race.”

The son of Get Stormy, who is trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse, was bought for $11,000 as a yearling and then was purchased privately after his 4-year-old season. He has banked $2,144,200 from eight wins in 33 starts to date.

Casse entered Thursday one win shy of 4,000 for his career.

“It was a very shrewd purchase,” said Malter, whose syndicate manages about 20 horses and owned Bucchero, the Indiana-bred winner of close to $1 million. “Bucchero, who ran right until his 6-year-old year, was our big horse prior to this one. He was a chestnut with four white socks. The chances of me getting another chestnut with four white socks who would kind of be like him … you don’t think (it can happen twice) to get a horse like this.

“You know, you buy a horse and think that, hopefully, you get a few good races, and he does well. But this horse? Get Smokin has been a dream to own.” 

The gallant gelding also has been a welcome member to the barn of Casse, who won the 2016 United Nations with eventual Breeders’ Cup Mile winner and turf-male champion World Approval.

“Mark has done a fantastic job, an unbelievable job, really an amazing job with him. We really let the horse tell us what he wants to do,” Malter said. “He had two tough races last year where we got some conditions we didn’t like and the setup we didn’t like. He threw in two underperformances so you say to yourself, `it’s his 7-year old year,’ and then you ask `is he telling you something?’

“But Mark said the horse is doing fantastic and he wants to run. So we listened and ran him in the Valedictory (a Grade 3 stakes at Woodbine at 1 1/2 miles on Dec. 7). It was a full-on, windswept, giant-snowflake snow blizzard and he went a mile-and-a-half on the lead in that race and was as happy as he could be. He finished up the year full of run.

“We’ve given him his time, and Mark has done a great job bringing him around. He’s 8 but he doesn’t want to do anything but run.” 

The partnership is bringing De La Cruz in from his Horseshoe Indianapolis base to ride the gelding, and the United Nations is his only mount on the Haskell Day card, where reigning Eclipse Award winner Flavien Prat, Hall of Famer John Velazquez, multiple champion rider Irad Ortiz Jr. international superstar Frankie Dettori, California mainstay Umberto Rispoli and other big-name riders have been retained.

“Fernando is the perfect jockey for him,” Malter said. “He was the jockey for Bucchero, and that’s how we wound up together. Fernando won the Kentucky Turf Cup (G2) in 2023 on Get Smokin. He gets along with the horse fantastically.”

Get Smokin will square against off 11 other tough turf runners, including familiar foes Grand Sonata and Tawny Port, the second and third place finishers in last year’s United Nations, respectively. Also in the field is Starting Over, who ran 11th that day; Corruption, another Casse charge; Redistricting; Limited Liability; Vote No; Rebel Red; Major Dude; Lord Eddard Stark and Hush of a Storm.

“Get Smokin always shows up,” Malta said. “The nice thing about him is that he’s a throwback horse. He’s 8. He doesn’t want to do anything but run.

“We’re thrilled we get to come back and defend the title. Hopefully, he can do it again and we’ll have a fun day.”