Owner Michael Cannon woke up on Memorial Day with a gut feeling. Cannon Thoroughbreds was going to win a Grade I that day. The second-longest shot in a field of five in the GI Hollywood Gold Cup S., There Goes Harvard (Will Take Charge) pulled the upset to win by a length, making him Cannon Thoroughbreds' second Grade I-winning homebred and giving trainer Michael McCarthy his first Gold Cup score.

It appeared on paper that Smooth Like Strait might have an easy time on the front end in the $300,500 Shoemaker Mile Stakes. As it turned out, not one, but two rivals in the field of six pressed the Cannon Thoroughbreds' homebred from the start – but it didn't matter.

Smooth Like Strait, a homebred for Michael and Jennifer Cannon's Cannon Thoroughbreds, collected his third graded stakes victory with a 1 1/2-length score in the Twilight Derby (G2T) Oct. 18 at Santa Anita Park.