Mike Smith made sure he was uncontested by aggressively cutting over and forcing his only pace rival Handsome Mike to shuffle back. You love that move every time, so long as you can get away with it.
Probably not wise to unnecessarily flirt with a DQ though.
No idea for how long he will hold this current form, but Game On Dude could wind up being one of these geldings who hangs around at the top levels for a long time. Fellow Awesome Again gelding Awesome Gem won his only career Grade 1 at age seven when he took the Hollywood Gold Cup.
The female family of Game On Dude is especially sturdy as well.
* His dam Worldly Pleasure (by Devil His Due) won 8 of 31 lifetime starts. She finished 8th beaten 34 lengths in a maiden claiming race at Laurel in her debut. Took six tries to break her maiden, did so in a maiden claiming race at Pimlico. Eventually won a minor stake race. She was a very bad gate horse. She unseated Ramon Dominguez at the break once, as a 4/5 favorite. On numerous instances had gate problems.
* Game On Dude's 2nd dam Fast Pleasure won 10 of 42 career starts. She also needed six tries to break her maiden, before doing so in $8,500 maiden claiming race at Laurel. She raced more than a dozen times with "no whip" She apparently hated the whip.
* Game On Dude's 3rd dam was 7 of 47 lifetime. This one needed eight tries before she finally broke her maiden. She eventually was multiple stakes placed and competed in some tough allowance races at Santa Anita.
That's an anti precocious pedigree on top of being a sturdy one. Game On Dude was 9/1 in the Florida Derby by just his third career start and was a 4th place finisher in the Belmont Stakes by his 6th career start.
His sire Awesome Again didn't break his maiden until June of his 3yo season and he improved a whole lot from age 3 to age 4.
It sure would have been fun to see Awesome Again come back and race as a 5-year-old.
03-03-2013, 06:12 PM
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