Trainer Tom Bush knows he's been handing Get Smokin some tough assignments against the top 3-year-old turfers.
"I've been throwing him to the wolves," Bush said about a gelding with just one win but five placings in his first nine starts.
Yet the 69-year old Bush is wise enough to know when he has a feisty 3-year-old who can brush aside adversity and keep bouncing back with one solid, front-running effort after another.
"He's one of those rare horses like the ones you'll see overseas where they'll run way out of their conditions or run in the Guineas and they don't get discouraged," Bush said. "They just keep coming back and giving you a top effort. That's the kind of horse he is. You're not going to break his spirit. You would with a lot of horses considering what I did to him."
That resiliency came to the fore Oct. 18 when the speedy Get Smokin shook off an eighth-place finish in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes and a second in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T) in his last two starts and held on for a gate-to-wire head victory over heavily favored Decorated Invader in the $150,000 Hill Prince Stakes (G2T) for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park. The race was delayed six days due to rainy conditions.
"He ran against some very good 3-year-olds early in the year and he's running against them now, so he fits in this group," Bush said about the Get Stormy gelding owned by the Mary Abeel Sullivan Revocable Trust who was purchased for just $11,000 by Taproot Bloodstock, agent, from the Hurstland Farm consignment at The October Sale, Fasig-Tipton's fall yearling sale in Lexington, in 2018. "We're tickled to death."
The victory was particularly delightful for Bush, who trained Get Stormy, a multiple grade 1 winner for Mary Abeel Sullivan, who captured 11 of 31 starts from 2008-12.
"Get Smokin is a little bit high octane, especially for a gelding. He's very kind in the stall, but aggressive in his training. Get Stormy was very, very aggressive himself. So that similarity between them is there," Bush said.
Bush also made a rather wise suggestion at the recent Keeneland September Yearling Sale. For another owner, he purchased Get Smokin's full sister out of the Smoke Glacken mare Hookah Lady through Taproot Bloodstock for $60,000 from the Hurstland Farm consignment.
"It wasn't $11,000, but it was a good buy," Bush said.
The victory was also surprising as it marked the third time Get Smokin ($17.40) faced Decorated Invader and it was his initial win over the Declaration of War colt.
He was second to Decorated Invader in the Hall of Fame Stakes and third behind him in the Cutler Bay Stakes. Both were unplaced in the Saratoga Derby, but Decorated Invader was a better fifth in that 1 3/16-mile stakes.
The cutback to the mile for the Hill Prince seemed to suit both 3-year-olds, though Get Smokin, who was bred by Hurstland Farm and James Greene Jr., flipped the script in winning for just the second time in 10 career starts.
After jockey Javier Castellano kept Get Smokin in front past each pole and fractions of :24.25, :49.52, and 1:13.05, he moved to a two-length lead at the eighth pole.
Behind him, Decorated Invader, the 2-5 favorite, was slow to find his best stride under jockey Joel Rosario while racing in sixth much of the way, but when he moved outside in the stretch and started gaining ground on the leader in the final furlong, beads of sweat began to form on Bush's brow.
"He was coming on strongly. It looked like there was no way we could hang on," Bush said.
But Castellano managed to coax just enough speed out of Get Smokin to narrowly reach the wire ahead of his on-rushing rival, covering the mile in 1:36.95 over yielding turf.
For Decorated Invader, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, William Freeman, William Sandbrook, and Cheryl Manning, it was a second straight loss after opening 2020 with three straight wins for trainer Christophe Clement.
"With the soft ground, it's hard to close. He ran well. He put in his effort," Rosario said. "He was trying hard, but it's just too bad we couldn't get them."
Repole Stable's Bodecream, a son of Bodemeister trained by Mike Maker, was another two lengths back in third.
As for what challenge awaits Get Smokin after his first graded stakes win, Bush said he'll most likely give him some much-deserved rest until his 4-year-old campaign begins.
"I might stop on him for a little while and wait for the middle of the Gulfstream Park meet," he said.
