Returning at Age 8, Get Smokin Begins Year in Eclipse

A stakes winner from one mile to 1 1/2 miles, on turf and synthetic, and with more than $2.1 million in earnings, there isn't too much Get Smokin hasn't accomplished in his six seasons at the track. The venerable gelding, a crowd favorite with a need-the-lead mentality, returns to the races for his seventh year of racing as a battle-hardened 8-year-old in the CA$175,000 Eclipse Stakes (G2) May 31 at Woodbine. Trained by Mark Casse for Ironhorse Racing Stable, BlackRidge Stables, T-N-T Equine Holdings, and Saratoga Seven Racing Partners, Get Smokin has accrued six stakes victories during his tenure at the track. The gelding is exiting a 2024 season bookended with graded victories, landing the 1 3/8-mile United Nations Stakes (G2T) in July at Monmouth Park before capping his campaign in Woodbine's Valedictory Stakes (G3) going 1 1/2 miles over the synthetic Dec. 7. Fourth in last year's Eclipse after tiring late, Get Smokin gets the services of 2024 Sovereign Award-winning jockey Sahin Civaci for Saturday's 1 1/16-mile contest. The son of Get Stormy will tote the high weight of 124 pounds in the Eclipse, 4 pounds more than his closest competitor. Get Smokin is one of two entries for Casse, who will saddle another accomplished hardy gelding in D. J. Stable's Webslinger. A grade 2 winner and twice runner-up at the grade 1 level, Webslinger will be making his first outing in more than eight months when he starts in the Eclipse. The son of Constitution was last seen finishing second to Truly Quality in last summer's Colonial Cup Stakes at Colonial Downs. Patrick Husbands gets the call on Webslinger in his Canadian debut. A notable challenger to the Casse pair is the Wertheimer et Frere homebred Dataman, a multiple stakes winner on the turf for trainer Graham Motion. The Tapit gelding opened his 5-year-old season with a victory in a one-mile turf allowance optional claimer at Laurel Park May 3. New York-based rider Manny Franco heads north to ride Dataman. Undercard Stakes 2024 Canadian Horse of the Year Patches O'Houlihan towers over a small field of four in the CA$150,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3). A homebred for Frank D. Di Giulio Jr. and trained by Robert Tiller, the brilliant gelding kicked off his 5-year-old campaign with an emphatic four-length score in the May 4 Thorncliffe Stakes, where he established a new Woodbine track mark of 1:02.28 for 5 1/2 furlongs on the synthetic course. Multiple stakes winner Toupie, a turf sprint specialist for Motion, ships into Woodbine hoping to steal the prize in the CA$150,000 Royal North Stakes (G3T) for older fillies and mares going 6 1/2 furlongs on the lawn. Toupie's biggest threat comes from local standout Earhart (FR), an explosive last-out winner of Woodbine's Whimsical Stakes (G3) May 3. A United States-based contender should also be favored in Saturday's final race of the card in the CA$150,000 Belle Mahone Stakes (G3). Resolute Racing's Dana's Beauty, an eight-time winner over the synthetic, makes her Woodbine debut for trainer Mike Maker. The 7-year-old daughter of Not This Time exits a 3 1/2-length tally in Turfway Park's Latonia Stakes March 22.