By Mike Paradise
For Thursday, February 26
Smiling Angel, an impressive winner at Balmoral in last week’s opening round of the Fox Valley Redhot Series, is blossoming has a four-year-old under the care of veteran trainer Ronnie Asaph. The filly came into this season with only nine career starts and none as a freshman for her Shelbyville, Indiana owner Richard Weaver.
“I wasn’t going to enter at Maywood and thought I would give her a week off but she’s been so sharp that I decided to put in box for Thursday,” said Asaph. “She got hurt as a 2-year-old when a stud horse tried to breed her and she didn’t race. Last year the filly had some stomach problems and was tying up and didn’t respond like she should when Neil Coleman had her. Her owner had her turned out for four months and then turned her over to me. I trained that good trotter Fabulous Grin for him who he sold to (Ken) Rucker last year and he knows I’ve been around for 44 years in this business.
“I got Smiling Angel ready for this year,” continued the 61-year-old native of Canada. “The filly has a great attitude. You won’t find too many fillies that want to be a race horse like she does and when she out there on the racetrack she does a lot better with her stomach problems. The filly has definitely has shown that she can pace fast. She likes to come from the back end. The other night she raced on a track that was pretty deep because of the snow and was about 10 lengths behind at the quarter (mile) pole and went on to win by almost three lengths.
“Widger (driver Sam) told me that when he pulled her he knew it was all over. He never even touched her. She came home in 27 and two and I believe she could have paced in 26 and a piece last quarter if we wanted to push her.
“I’ve been in Illinois since 1965 and I started out with Joe O’Brien. I worked for Armstrong Brothers in 1964 up in Canada. I’m originally from Nova Scotia. I got my experience getting nervous, crippled or abused horses ready to race from my dad Alfred who trained horses and also had a lumber mill in Canada. He taught me how to get a horse to relax.
“Smiling Angel used to want to be on the muscle and run off all the time before I got her. You can’t go 100 miles a day with a horse and expect the horse to stay sound. You have to get control of their energy. I believe a horse should be relaxed jogging and I jog her the right way on the racetrack every day.” said Asaph.
Smiling Angel was a romping five-length winner in her first Maywood Park test on February 5 in a leg of the Newcomer Series. She’ll open up as the 5-2 second programmed choice behind the Perry Smith Stable’s morning line favorite Haylie Sue (9-5) in Thursday night’s sixth race, the middle split of three Series divisions on the card.
