Smooth With a Kick possible for Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct

Three-time winner Smooth With a Kick is likely to face stakes company next out in next Sunday’s $100,000 Ladies Handicap, a nine furlong test for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up at Aqueduct.

Trained by Chad Brown and owned by Jeff Drown, the daughter of multiple champion producing sire Candy Ride was a distant fifth in her graded stakes debut last out in the Grade 2 Falls City on Thanksgiving Day at Churchill Downs, following an optional-claiming triumph on Oct. 11 at Keeneland.

In her Keeneland score, Smooth With a Kick was in behind horses for most of the journey, made a bid along the rail and established command around the far turn holding off a late charge from next out winner Luna Fortis to win by 3 1/4 lengths.

Smooth With a Kick, who owns a record of 13: 3-3-3, is still seeking her first stakes triumph but notched black type when finishing third in the Twixt on Sept. 5 at Laurel Park.

“I think she’s more than capable of beating stakes horses,” Brown’s assistant Whit Beckman said. “She’s proven that she’s a quality allowance filly and now that she’s taking that jump up to stakes company, starting her back here in the winter is one of the best places you can get her going.”

Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, Smooth With a Kick is out of the three-time stakes-placed Mineshaft mare Minesave and was purchased for $650,000 from the 2018 OBS April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale from the Ricehorse Stable consignment barn.

Beckman also spoke highly of recent maiden winner Carillo, a 3-year-old son of Union Rags who won first out on Friday at Aqueduct for the Estate of Paul Pompa Jr.

With Manny Franco up, Carillo overcame a difficult start to rally and score by 2 3/4 lengths to earn a 75 Beyer in the one-turn maiden special weight mile.

The Kentucky homebred is scheduled to go through the sales ring at the Keeneland January Sale as part of the late Pompa’s dispersal. He is listed as Hip 1566 and will be consigned by Lanes’ End.

“His effort the other day was professional,” Beckman said. “For a firster to get squeezed back early and not necessarily have his own way, it was a very professional race.”

Carillo is out of the Bernardini mare Proper Mad and comes from the same family as 2000 Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Status — the dam of 2009 Belmont Stakes runner-up Dunkirk.