Post by creativecause on Apr 14, 2017 11:07:10 GMT -5
SmashDashing: A Ticking Time Bomb
SmashDashing was swept under the rug, out of sight, out of mind, underappreciated. This season hardly anyone recognizes the horse who spent all of last season running as the bridesmaid to the likes of Optical Illusion and Dancing On Nails. But his plucky trainer Aaron Evertt warns against thinking that way. “He handily beat both of them as a two year old, and as a three year old as well, I have no reason to think he won’t do it again.”
Grayson Meadows has been all but absent in the big turf sprint races ever since they retired champions Call Me Crooked and Tears Of An Angel. “Our current turf sprinters have big shoes to fill, we understand that. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect more from Dry Your Tears and SmashDashing this season, but we’ve got a ways to go, I’m confident we’ll round into form before the end of the year.” Aaron Evertt commented.
SmashDashing was a star as a two year old, winning races left and right including the Y15 editions of The Bull Dog Stakes and The Tri-State Futurity where he beat Optical Illusion and Dancing On Nails. Additionally, he also received praise from Stride Of Perfection after his Tri-State Futurity effort, they called him formidable. In all SmashDashing won 8 races as a two year old 2 of them HOTY efforts, placed second 10 times 7 of them HOTY races, and 3rd 3 times 2 of those efforts HOTY races. Never once was he out of the money. Heading into his three year old season SmashDashing looked to be a top competitor for the Triple Sprinter Crown, and was in tremendous form. It isn’t little-known fact that Grayson Meadows’ Y13 crop was not exactly the best, but SmashDashing was definitely the best horse they had on their roster heading into the 3 year old races. Hopes were high, and suddenly, they were smashed. In a matter of months, he was suddenly placing last, which he’d never done before, he was flopping miserably against horses he’d beat easily last season. It simply made no sense. The horse went winless until May.
“I was beyond frustrated, but he won that race back in May and I was certain that was the turning point. Boy was I wrong.” SmashDashing only continued to struggle. And the horse everyone thought had a shot at the Turf Triple Crown never made an appearance in the coveted series that Grayson Meadows had won with Call Me Crooked the season before. “We were all heartbroken, and confused, it made no sense at all. This horse was simply dismissed. I realized the majority of his wins as a two year old weren’t horse of the year quality races but neither were Take Flight’s. This horse reminded me so much of Take Flight, their careers are rather similar, so I thought perhaps this season we’d see a turnaround. We did finally get him to Grade One at the end of last year, so I was very optimistic to see what he’d do this season. So far, it looks like I was wrong.” Aaron Evertt said when asked about the horses career in general so far.
This season looks to be no different then his last. A fourth and two thirds. Now there is a lot of the season left, and Evertt is trying to remain positive but if the horse doesn’t want to run the horse simply doesn’t want to run. However, Tanner Grayson warns against dismissing the 4 year old son of the little known Mister Surprise. “He ran a bullet work the other day, I hadn’t seen him run like that in awhile. He trains well but runs poorly. We’re trying out some new things to see if we can’t get him back into it. He steamrolled Insouciant the other day, a horse he wasn’t even working with. He literally just caught a glimpse of him and took the bit in his mouth and ran at him with Jessie holding on for dear life. It’s so unlike him to act like that, but it’s also encouraging.”
“He’s sitting on something when he decides to let that out, I don’t know, but when he does I pity the poor horses that are going to be eating his dust.” Aaron Evertt said. “I think he may be sick and tired of playing the role of the bridesmaid.”
To put it simply, SmashDashing is simply a ticking time bomb waiting to finally explode.
