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MIAMI - When Mambo Meister worked three furlongs in 34.01 seconds here Monday morning, the same day his name appeared on the nomination sheet for the $350,000 Smile Sprint Handicap, it was logical to assume that trainer Phil Gleaves was seriously considering turning his multiple graded stakes winner back in distance to try the Grade 2 Smile on the July 10 Summit of Speed program. Gleaves confirmed that later on Monday. "We're going to run him in the Smile," Gleaves said. "The genesis of this decision is that the breeder always felt the horse could sprint. He is part of the ownership group as well, and we've always wanted to try it but never got around to doing it until now." Watching Mambo Meister work immediately after the renovation break on Monday, it was hard to tell the horse has never raced at less than a mile in his career. Breaking off at the three-furlong pole with regular rider Manoel Cruz aboard, Mambo Meister covered his opening quarter-mile in a blistering 22.59 while kept about four or five paths off the rail entering the stretch. He completed his final furlong in 11.42 without urging, before galloping out a half-mile into the clubhouse turn in 46.66. "I told Manny to give him a sharp three-eighths but not get to the bottom of him," Gleaves said. "I was looking for 34 and change or thereabouts, and I was really pleased with the ease which he did it. This work really blew me away. I was quite comfortable with what I saw, and while he was really on his toes when he came back to the barn, an hour later he was grazing and acting as if he hadn't done a thing." Mambo Meister is already the star of the current session, having won the meet's first two graded stakes -- the Grade 3 Miami Mile Handicap over the turf on opening day and the Grade 3 Memorial Day Handicap five weeks later. "The bottom line is that we've always wanted to try him sprinting, and this is the perfect opportunity," Gleaves said. "The race is in our own backyard, it's a lot of money, and he absolutely loves this racetrack. And it's not like turning horses back to win stakes is without precedent. It's done all the time."
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