Cleopatra's Strike

Cleopatra’s Strike needed seven tries to earn his first career victory, winning a maiden special weight race in October 2016 on the all-weather track at Woodbine. He ran second in his next two races but was unplaced in his final start of 2016.

After beginning his 4-year-old campaign with back-to-back fourth-place finishes, Cleopatra’s Strike won an allowance race going 1 1/16 miles on the grass at Woodbine in June 2017. He ran second twice in her final four races of 2017.

In October 2018, Cleopatra’s Strike halted an eight-race winless stretch with an allowance-optional claiming race going a mile on the grass at Woodbine.

Purchased privately by Slam Dunk Racing and Michael Nentwig and transferred to the Southern California barn of Phil D’Amato, Cleopatra’s Strike made his stakes debut in the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita in January 2019 and finished second by a nose to Next Shares. He did not race for eight months, returning with a runner-up finish in an allowance race Sept. 2 at Del Mar. The Smart Strike gelding returned to graded stakes competition for the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship Stakes Sept. 28 at Santa Anita Park and closed from fourth to earn a breakthrough stakes win by a length.