Multiple grade II winner Smooth Air, an earner of $1,117,200, will enter stud in 2011 at Ray and Kathy Paul’s Fanlew Farms near Sarapta, La. He will stand as the property of Brian and Jan Burns, whose family’s Mount Joy Stables bred and raced the 5-year-old son of Smooth Jazz.
Trained by Bennie F. Stutts Jr., Smooth Air captured the Ohio Derby (gr. II), Hutcheson Stakes (gr. II), and Needles Stakes in 2008. He won the Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. II) in 2009. Smooth Air’s other efforts included runner-up finishes in the Florida Derby (gr. I) in 2008 and the Shadwell Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I) in 2009.
Bred in Florida, Smooth Air is out of the winning French Deputy mare Air France. He posted six victories, five seconds, and three thirds in 17 career races.
Smooth Air’s stud fee will be announced at a later date.