Renita Beaton is convinced Wednesday’s Voodoo Ranger Handicap at Ipswich is the perfect third-up option for Smart As Smart, which is why the Gold Coast trainer was so disappointed at the barrier he came up with.
The Smart Missile gelding landed the outside alley in the field of 12, which includes one emergency, for the benchmark 70 event over 1710 metres.
Beaton is still open to running the six-year-old, who is a two-time winner at Ipswich, but only if there at least a couple of scratchings.
“We’ve had to run him from terrible draws in the past and he’s just been one of the most unlucky horses and I just don’t want to do that to his owners again,” Beaton said.
“Look, we might draw bad again next time and you have to go around, but if I can protect him for one more run I will.
“We’ll wait until tomorrow to see if there are any scratchings and if there is we may run him.”
Should he run, Smart As Smart will be ridden by Jace McMurray, who will claim 2kg and get his weight down to 59kg.
He resumed with a Class 5 win over 1350m at Doomben on April 1 before a narrow second placing in the same grade when stepping up to 1640m a fortnight later.
It is the most consistent Smart As Smart has been early in a campaign and Beaton, who got him from Ron Quinton a tick over two years ago, is confident of a strong showing from him third-up, wherever that may be.
“He’s in really good order, he’s always been such a consistent horse for me,” Beaton said.
“Every time I take him to the races he seems to show up and he’s very honest.
“He’s in very good order, he’s racing very well and consistently and there’s no reason why he won’t go and do that again.”
