Sassy Smith Goes for Rare Double

Sassy Smith posted the sixth-best qualifying time in trials but tonight can become only the third winner of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Assn.’s Breeders’ Futurity to win the Breeders’ Derby as well.

The field for the $117,000 Derby is a talented lot. Babe Watcher, who ran second to Sassy Smith in the 2001 Breeders’ Futurity, won the Sunland Park Fall Futurity and posted the best qualifying time in the Breeders’ Derby trials. Check Him Out won the Golden State Derby last month.

Not so bad: Jockey Joe Badilla has been aboard mounts that have won the last three Breeders’ Derbies. He will ride Sassy Smith from Gate 5 tonight for trainer Jaime Gomez, whose Make It Anywhere (2001 and 2002) is one of the two horses to have won the futurity and the derby. The other was Azure Hope Too in 1985 and ’86.

The picks: 1. A Dash Of Apollo, 2. Leeper, 3. First Down Chicky, 4. Fred Too, 5. Signed Corona, 6. Metamorphosis, 7. First Royal Princess, 8. A Cover Story, 9. Check Him Out, 10. Cagey Cameron.

Four: Stay up late for First Royal Princess and Sixy Bee in the seventh, A Cover Story in the eighth, Check Him Out, Babe Watcher and Sassy Smith in the ninth, and Cagey Cameron and Mighty Smooth Dash in the finale.

Shots in the dark: Is the magic back for Corona Magic in the sixth? Sassy Smith deserves better than being a longshot in the ninth. Another looker in the talent-laden ninth is Miami Cartel breaking on the inside rail.

Post time: 7:15 p.m.

On the Net: For entries and results from Los Alamitos visit: www.latimes.com/horseracing.