Sprinter Smart Enough to Race in the Shakertown Stakes

Smart Enough has established himself as one of the nation’s elite turf sprinters. (AP Images)

He will be starting his 2008 schedule today in the $125,000 Shakertown Stakes (Grade 3) at Keeneland. He has drawn Post 2 and it will be the eighth race at approximately 4:40 p.m. EST.

For the first time turf sprinters will have a Breeders' Cup championship race to themselves. That race at Santa Anita in October is the long-range goal for Smart Enough.

"I would certainly hope to be in the Breeders' Cup," Smart Enough's trainer, John R.S. Fisher, said Friday morning from the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, where he is based. "That would be the plan. He's certainly the best horse I've ever trained."

Smart Enough has won 10 of 15 starts, all on turf. He has won eight of 10 sprints at distances from five to six furlongs.

Fisher gave Smart Enough a vacation over the winter after racing him in the five-furlong Cherokee Run Stakes at Churchill Downs in November. He pointed him to a return when the weather improved, but recent wet weather at Keeneland gave Fisher some concern.

"I'm going to run if the race is on grass, but if it's taken off the grass, he won't run," Fisher said. "He trains on a synthetic surface, but I don't want to begin the season running him for the first time on Polytrack."

May 3 is coming up. Bet on the $2 million Kentucky Derby now.