Seattle Smooth, second choice behind Proud Spell, pulled away from the 2-5 favorite in the stretch to win the Sept. 20 Fitz Dixon Cotillion Stakes (gr. II) (VIDEO) at Philadelphia Park. Seattle Smooth, a daughter of Quiet Americanowned by Ernie Moody’s Mercedes Stables, won by 2 ½ lengths. Proud Spell just caught 60-1 shot Color Me Up by a neck at the wire.
The 1 1/16-mile race, one of the richest for 3-year-old fillies with a purse of $750,000, was run in 1:42.58 over a fast track at the Bensalem, Pa. oval.
Color Me Up set the pace in the Cotillion, setting moderate splits of :24.31, :48.59, and 1:11.89 while being tracked by By the Light and Proud Spell, with Seattle Smooth tucked inside with Jose Lezcano aboard. Lezcano angled Seattle Smooth out in the stretch and roared past Color Me Up after getting a mile in 1:36.34.
Seattle Smooth, bred in Kentucky by Dr. Oscar Benavides and Darley, now has a 4-1-1 mark from 10 career starts and the $430,500 winner’s share boosted her career earnings to $611,160.
Dennis Yokum, acting as agent for Mercedes Stables, purchased Seattle Smooth for $340,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling sale in 2006. She was consigned by Montesacro Farm, agent. Moody, who lives in Las Vegas, is president of Action Gaming, and holds patents on numerous video poker machines.
Seattle Smooth, who is out of the Seattle Song mare Our Seattle Star, came into the Cotillion off a dominating 7 ¼-length victory Aug. 30 in the $100,000 Go for Wand Stakes at Delaware Park while making her first start for trainer Tony Dutrow. Prior to the Go for Wand, she was based on the West Coast under the care of Julio Canani. Earlier in the year she had won the Bay Meadows Oaks. In three previous attempts at the graded stakes level, she had one placing, a third-place effort behind Sweet Vendetta and She’s All Eltish in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (gr. II) on Preakness Eve at Pimlico.
Seattle Smooth paid $8.40, $3, and $2.80. Brereton Jones’ Proud Spell, winner of both the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) and Alabama Stakes (gr. I) this year, paid $2.10 and $2.10. Color Me Up returned $5.40 to place. The 4-6 exacta paid $15.
