Mendelssohn Colt Determined Winner in Paradise Creek

Pura Vida Investments’ Smokey Smokey (3c Mendelssohn x Weaponry, by War Front) added a stakes victory to his resume on Sunday with a victory in the Listed Paradise Creek Stakes at Belmont at the Big A.

Second last out in the Animal Kingdom Stakes, Smokey Smokey was happy to be the one to apply pressure to Mattingly around the course in the six-furlong turf race. Racing a few paths wide, jockey Ramon Vazquez urged his mount to get more serious in his challenge at the quarter pole and the game was on.

In the stretch, he battled with the longtime leader before grabbing the upper hand in the final sixteenth to win by a neck with Uncle Mo’s Feltrinelli finishing in third.

"I got a beautiful trip. So, I knew I had a lot of horse. I just waited for the moment to ask him. Right at the moment I asked him, he responded very well,” Vazquez said. "I was very confident the whole way. I just waited for the moment to ask him. You can see right when I asked, he responds right away."

Trained by Mike Maker, Smokey Smokey has finished in the top three in five of his seven starts with two top two finishes in three starts this year alone.

A $120,000 yearling purchase by his racing owner, Smokey Smokey was bred by Sanford Robertson out of the War Front mare Weaponry.

A half-sister to stakes winner Jessica Krupnick, Weaponry is the dam of two winners from four to race. Their dam is a half-sister to Grade I winner Eskendereya and to the granddam of this year’s Grade I Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna.

The sire of the most 2024 winners of any third crop sire this year, Mendelssohn’s three stakes winners this year is also fifth best among his generation.