Max Ciao battled the length of the stretch with Thirsty Rebel and got his nose down at the wire when it counted to win the $101,000, I’m Smokin Stakes at Del Mar Aug. 5.
The two-year-old colt became the first Stakes winner for his freshman sire, Maxfield, who has sired 10 individual winners so far this season. Max Ciao, who was for the second time in four starts, earned the winner’s share of $57,000 from the gross purse of $101,000. He now has earnings of $117,000.
At the start it was the undefeated favorite, Sammy Davis, who zipped out of the gate and went straight to the front to set the pace. Max Ciao, forwardly-placed by jockey Armando Ayuso, sat just off the pace in third, just behind Thirsty Rebel.
With Max Ciao on the outside and Thirsty Rebel to his inside, the pair swept past Sammy Davis at the top of the lane, locked in a battle of their own that would determine the outcome of the race. At the wire it was Max Ciao on top as he won the bob and got his nose down when it mattered the most.
Bred in California by Terry Lovingier and raced by Lovingier in partnership with John Moroney and trainer Steve Knapp, Max Ciao is out of the multiple Stakes-placed mare, Bella Ciao (by Flatter) and hails from the family of G2 Alcibiades winner, Terra Incognita, and multiple Stakes winner, Love That Jazz.
Maxfield is the sire of 10 individual winners so far from his first crop. Just a few of those winners include Saratoga debut winner and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Five Bars, who is targeting either the G1 Darley Alcibiades or the G1 Frizette for her next start; Lilies N Paradise, debut winner at Churchill Downs (and now Stakes-placed at Delaware Park) and Just Asap, a seven-length debut winner at Ellis Park (and now Stakes-placed at Monmouth Park).
