SMOOTH LIKE STRAIT
MIDNIGHT LUTE - SMOOTH AS USUAL, by FLOWER ALLEY
FIVE-TIME GRADED STAKES WINNER, EARNER OF OVER $1.8M,
Grade 1 winner and millionaire SMOOTH LIKE STRAIT has been retired and will stand the 2024 breeding season at War Horse Place.
The 6-year-old son of champion sprinter Midnight Lute retires with a 7-9-3 record from 26 career starts that included five graded stakes wins and an additional 10 graded-placed finishes. He won from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, with his best performance a 1 1/2-length win in the 2021 Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T) at Santa Anita Park. He would be runner-up in five other grade 1 stakes that included the Hollywood Derby, Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes, Breeders' Cup Mile, 2022 Shoemaker Mile, and 2022 Arlington Million Stakes at Churchill Downs. His career earnings total $1,813,863.
A homebred for Cannon Thoroughbreds and trained by Michael McCarthy, Smooth Like Strait raced from 2 to 5 and has retired sound.
Cannon bred Smooth Like Strait out of the Flower Alley winner Smooth as Usual, whose dam Beautiful Lil is a half sister to grade 2 winner Dixie Dot Com and stakes-placed winner Cherokee Crossing, who is the dam of grade 1 winner Siphonic and stakes winner Mountain Girl. The immediate family also has produced multiple graded stakes winner and sire Summer Front and grade 1 winner Laragh .
Smooth Like Strait will stand for a $3,500 stud fee with a live foal stands and nurses guarantee.