Returning to the races after slightly more than three months off, Francis Paolangeli’s homebred Wildcat’s Smile closed into a second-place finish in the $75,000 Raging Fever overnight stakes on Opening Day at Aqueduct.
The 3-year-old daughter of Forest Wildcat had not raced since an off-the-board finish when heavily favored to beat the boys in the New York Derby at Finger Lakes on July 21. Returning to the worktab for trainer Dominic Galluscio on September 24, Wildcat’s Smile logged five published works toward her return, including a sharp five-furlong move at Belmont on October 21 (1:00 3/5).
Breaking from post five (of six) to go seven furlongs on Friday, Wildcat’s Smile sat back in fourth position early under Cornelio Velazquez. Between and behind horses in the backstretch and though the far turn as far as the quarter pole, Wildcat’s Smile shifted out five wide at the top of the stretch, at this point with the whole field to pass.
Going widest of all in the stretch, Wildcat’s Smile pursued eventual winner Morrow Cove past the rest of the field and closed ground well, ultimately finishing 1 1/4 lengths behind the winner. The final time for seven furlongs over the fast going was 1:24.21.
A maiden-breaker at second asking at Saratoga in 2011, Wildcat’s Smile enjoyed an outstanding juvenile campaign. Winner of the New York Breeders’ Futurity, she finished second by a nose in the Grade 2 Demoiselle, as well as earning place money in the Lady Finger Stakes and Joseph A. Gimma. In four prior starts this year, she won a state-bred allowance and finished a strong third in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan. The dark bay filly’s record now stands at 3-4-2 with $368,821 in earnings.
Foaled at Keane Stud in Amenia, Wildcat’s Smile is out of Serenity’s Smile, a multiple black type placed New York-bred daughter of Dixie Brass also bred by Paolangeli ($178,634). A producer of all stakes winners from three foals to start, Serenity’s Smile first foal, Stormy’s Smile, a daughter of Stormy Atlantic, won the 2008 renewal of the Maid of the Mist at Belmont ($73,971). Five-year-old Johannesburg Smile (Johannesburg) has won two stakes races and is a nine-time stakes performer ($383,770).
Serenity’s Smile currently has a 2-year-old filly by Stormy Atlantic named Atlantic’s Smile who has not yet started and a yearling colt by Catienus (Catienus’s Smile). She was bred to Bluegrass Cat in 2012.
