George Strawbridge’s 6-year-old Smart Bid, a Grade 2-winning son of Smart Strike, will stand the 2013 breeding season at Highcliff Stallions at Mill Creek Farm it was announced today.
Winner of the Grade 3 Fair Grounds H. and East Hanover S. earlier this year, Smart Bid won the Grade 2 Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial H. in 2011 and the Damascus S. as a three-year-old at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita. Twice second in Grade 1 races in 2011 – by less than a length to Get Stormy in the Turf Classic at Churchill and by a nose to Teaks North and a length ahead of Get Stormy in the Gulfstream Park Turf H. – Smart Bid retires with a record of 26-6-8-4 and earnings of $1,008,309.
“Smart Bid is very correct, and I believe he is the kind of stallion breeders will find tremendously useful. He had a long successful career, he won over a million dollars, and retired sound. He has the right connections, sire line and pedigree. We are honored and delighted to stand a horse of his stature for the 2013 season,” commented Suzie O’Cain. “He arrived at the farm Tuesday, so we will let him settle in for a few days before scheduling breeder inspections.”
Trainer Graham Motion said of the stallion, “Smart Bid is a millionaire who won from 7 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles on dirt, turf, and synthetic. He was a precocious 2-year old and a classy older horse who comes from a family of Mr. Strawbridge’s that I have been around since I worked for Jonathan Sheppard.”
Bred by his owner, George Strawbridge, Smart Bid is out of the Danzig mare, Recording, a daughter of the multiple graded stakes winner Ratings (by Caveat), one of six stakes horses produced by T. V. Commercial mare T. V. Ad.
The only G2 winner/G1 performing son of two-time leading sire Smart Strike in New York, Smart Bid will stand for $4,500 live foal. For all inquires, please contact Suzie O’Cain (518) 573-2304 or (518) 306-5027.
