NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The highly anticipated start of previously unbeaten thoroughbred Smile Happy in the $400K Risen Star Stakes concluded with a runner-up finish that has McPeek Racing trainer and future hall-of-fame jockey Robby Albarado feeling the 3-year-old colt is right on track for the season ahead.
“He ran as expected,” the two-time Preakness-winning rider told WGNO Sports after the horse finished second to Epicenter at the New Orleans Fair Grounds on Saturday. “We were hoping for a good race and we got one. He lacked a little room late in the race – some traffic trouble – but it happens in these big fields here.”
Jockey Corey Lanerie rode the previously unbeaten, 2.20-to-1 favorite and praised the horse’s performance after what Albarado said was a long layoff.
“About the 3/8ths pole to the 5/16ths I was wanting to get out and start to make my run a little sooner than I was able to,” said Lanerie. “I felt like I was still running the time I got out to the end (finish line), so if I had gotten out when I had wanted to, I would have liked to see the outcome. But he ran fabulous and he has some (Derby) points now.”
Now retired, the 48-year-old Albarado works as an assistant trainer to Kenneth McPeek, who purchased the colt for $185,000 at auction for owner Lucky Seven Stable.
According to the former Dubai World Cup-winning jockey, thoroughbreds like Smile Happy are in a league all to themselves.
“I always say, they breathe different air,” said Albarado, who jockeyed Curlin and Swiss Skydiver to Preakness wins in 2007 and 2020 respectively. “They are like our top-tier athletes. They are LeBron James or Michael Jordans of our sport. They separate themselves, They show an immense amount of talent and they prove it on the race tracks in the afternoons.”
Despite already being tagged as a pre-race favorite for the Kentucky Derby in May, Albarado said a return to the Crescent City is in store before turning attention toward Churchill Downs.
“The Kentucky Derby is a good ways away, but take one step at a time and I think they will really separate themselves after the next race – the Louisiana Derby,” he said. “Hopefully he’ll stay healthy, that’s the main thing that’s very important in this industry, stay healthy, let them show what they can do.”
The Fair Grounds Race Course is set to host the Louisiana Derby on March 26. The annual event which dates back to 1894, makes it one of the oldest Kentucky Derby prep races in the nation. And one this year that Albarado says should not be missed.
“The fans of New Orleans, they are big fans, they are fans of the Saints and everything,” said the Lafayette native. “And they are fans of horseracing here. I think if they come out they are going to see a [potential] Kentucky Derby winner, and that’s exciting if he can come out of New Orleans.”