Smart Bid gets up late in Fair Grounds Handicap

Augustin Stables' homebred Smart Bid caught Mr. Vegas in the final

strides of Saturday's Grade 3, $122,500

Fair Grounds Handicap, posting

his first victory since last year's Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap.

Trained by Graham Motion and ridden by Edgar Prado, the classy

six-year-old turf runner increased his lifetime earnings to $891,813

from a 20-5-7-4 ledger.

Making his first start since an unplaced effort last September, Smart

Bid snapped a five-race losing skid Saturday. The dark bay horse placed

in five stakes events last season, including runner-up finishes in the

Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf, Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic and

lucrative Colonial Turf Cup Stakes, but was winless since the

aforementioned New Orleans. Based this winter at Palm Meadows in South

Florida, he will likely return to Fair Grounds for a title defense in

that event April 1.

Smart Bid dropped back at the start as Mr. Vegas showed the way into

the first turn of the about 1 1/8-mile turf affair. The pacesetter was

traveling several paths off the rail as he completed the opening

quarter-mile in :24 2/5 and reached the half-mile mark with a one-length

advantage in :49 3/5. Smart Bid was reserved well of the pace in fifth

during the early stages.