Bodacious broke on top in the $98,000 I'm Smokin Stakes Sept. 6 at Del Mar and never looked back, scoring a three-length tally in the six-furlong feature for California-bred juveniles. The victory gave California third-crop sire Smokem his first stakes winner.
Bodacious' final time for six furlongs on the dirt track rated fast was 1:10.17. The winner, a son of the stakes-placed Union Rags sire Smokem, is owned by the partnership of Griffin Stables, Terry Lovingier, and Paul Sabesky.
Lovingier, owner of Lovacres Ranch, is the main partner and bred Bodacious. Lovingier also bred and co-owned Smokem.
Bodacious was ridden by Tyler Baze and is trained by Jorge Periban. The dark bay or brown colt out of the Bodemeister mare My Love Magnet has won two of four starts and earned $93,400. He paid $8.40 to win.
"First time I ran the horse he ran with blinkers on and he got hit from both sides by a couple of horses and I think he got a little scared. So today I took off the blinkers and it worked," Periban said. "He's a nice horse. When he broke from the gate I saw him more focused and I said, 'This is going to be the time.' The horse was ready to go and I got lucky today."
The I'm Smokin is part of the Golden State Series that consists of 35 races run up and down the state worth a total of $4.45 million. It was the eighth and final Cal-bred stakes run at Del Mar this summer.
Smokem was bred in California and is out of the grade 3-placed, multiple stakes-wining Smoke Glacken mare One Smokin' Lady. Smokem won a maiden special weight race at Del Mar and finished second in four stakes races in his five lifetime starts.
Smokem entered stud at Lovacres Ranch in Warner Springs, Calif., in 2019. His stud fee has remained at $5,000 since his introduction. Coming into Friday's racing, Smokem ranked fifth on California's third-crop sire list.
