UCLA's Cronin a winner at the track ahead of hoops opener

Updated Oct. 22, 2021 8:41 p.m. ET

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA coach Mick Cronin is a winner even before the college basketball season starts next month.

A 3-year-old filly co-owned by Cronin won the $63,000 feature at Santa Anita by three-quarters of a length on Friday.

Sent off at 6-1 odds, So Very Smart paid $14.40, $6.40 and $8.20

The victory, worth $37,800, increased So Very Smart's career earnings to $84,860, with two wins in seven starts. Cronin and his Boom Racing own the filly in partnership with three other stables.

Trained by Doug O'Neill and ridden by Abel Cedillo, So Very Smart ran six furlongs in 1:11.16.

So Very Smart overhauled leader Rain Diva a sixteenth of a mile from the finish, holding off Smoothlikebuttah at the wire.

So Very Smart won her first career race on Oct. 16 by 6 1/4 lengths.

The second-ranked Bruins open the season on Nov. 9.

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