Jim and Eleanor Ryan’s homebred filly Smart Angle became their first Eclipse Award winner when she was named the nation’s champion 2-year-old filly of 1979. During a seven-race stretch over a span of three months during her championship season, the Ryehill Farm colorbearer trained by the legendary Woody Stephens recorded six stakes wins, including four Grade 1s when taking the Selima, Frizette, Matron and Spinaway.

The daughter of Quadrangle started her career in a maiden special weight at Belmont that July, leading early before being caught and finishing second by a head. Her first stakes win was also her first win when she narrowly edged Hail to Ambition at Bowie in the Luck Penny for Maryland-breds 16 days after her debut.

Stephens tested the pretty bay over the next few months, sending her out nearly every two weeks. Her graded stakes debut came in the Grade 3 Adirondack at Saratoga, which she won by a neck. Next up, she faced five top fillies in the Grade 1 Spinaway and spurted away to win by one and a half lengths.

With the distances stretching out, she wound up third in her first start beyond six furlongs, and her first at Belmont Park, in the Astarita Stakes-G3. From there, distance wasn’t an issue.

Smart Angle won the seven-furlong Matron and one-mile Frizette, both at Belmont, then scored in the mile and a sixteenth Selima. The latter was run at Pimlico in late October after torrential rains washed out the Laurel track earlier in the month. The stakes streak left no doubt of the top juvenile filly in the U.S. 

It was decided to run her one more time that year in the Grade 2 Demoiselle in her first start at Aqueduct and her first at a mile and an eighth. Contested a month after the Selima, she lost by a nose in a head bob with future Kentucky Derby winner Genuine Risk, who was in receipt of five pounds. Smart Angle finished in the top three in all nine starts that year, eight in stakes. 

The champion returned at 3 in fine form. While she lost her first start of the year in Hialeah’s seven-furlong Hibiscus Stakes, she was giving the winner 10 pounds and missed by a nose. Less than three weeks later she contested Hialeah’s Grade 3 Poinsettia Stakes and dominated the mile and an eighth test, winning by seven lengths. The Daily Racing Form chart noted: “Smart Angle, much the best, broke in stride, opened a clear lead, was rated nicely and won as the rider pleased.” It would be the final win of her career. She capped off the month in the Fair Grounds Oaks, set the pace, but lost by a head. 

She wouldn’t hit the board in her five remaining starts, but her first dozen starts at 2 and 3, 11 in stakes at seven different tracks, yielded seven wins, four seconds and a third. 

Smart Angle was retired in January of her 4-year-old season and joined the Ryehill Farm broodmare band. She went on to produce 13 winners from 14 starters, led by graded stakes-winning Maryland-bred champion Houston, a $2.9 million sales yearling by Seattle Slew.