d for $32,000 in May 2015 by his current connection

Smack Smacks first win in eight starts this year also was the biggest victory of his career, a narrow decision over Shotgun Kowboy in an oddly run edition of the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap on Saturday afternoon.On paper, Smack Smack looked too slow and insufficiently accomplished to win, but that is why he paid $34.20. There was one thing Smack Smack had going for him, if you stared long enough at his past performance lines, and that was the races nine-furlong distance: Smack Smack entered the Cornhusker with two wins and a third from four races at 1-1/8 miles, and he needed every foot of it to prevail.The Cornhusker unfolded at a very modest tempo, with nearly the entire field stacked across the track a half-furlong from the first turn. Shotgun Kowboy came through along the inside to grab the lead, going his first quarter-mile in 23.64 seconds and a half in a mild 48.78 as favorite Smaverlous pressed two paths off the fence and well-backed Cyrus Alexander raced three wide. The pace barely quickened through six furlongs in 1:13.35, and midway around the turn, Smaverlous pushed to the front and took a clear lead, with Shotgun Kowboy apparently fading on the fence.At the quarter pole, it briefly looked like a showdown between SMaverlous and Cyrus Alexander, but Cyrus Alexander suddenly went flat and backed up between horses, while SMaverlous, rather than pull away, began to lose his lead. Rivals swarmed inside and out, and it was Smack Smack on the far outside going slightly better than Shotgun Kowboy, who had plugged and plugged along the inside and nearly got back up to win.Smack Smack, racing mid-pack until making his move in the homestretch under Shane Laviolette, won by a neck, with Shotgun Kowboy just a head better than 14-1 shot Pain and Misery, who had rallied from eighth to get into the thick of things at the stretch call. Smaverlous checked in fourth, followed by Code West, Hawaakom, Cyrus Alexander, Domains Rap, and Eton Ridge. Winning time for the 1-1/8 miles on a fast track was 1:50.28.Don Von Hemel trains Smack Smack for his owner and breeder, Dream Walkin Farms. Smack Smack, fourth in the local Cornhusker prep last out, is a 5-year-old gelding by Closing Argument and out the Victory Gallop mare, Smack Madam. He ran his record to 9-3-7 from 26 starts with career earnings of nearly $750,000.Candip captures Iowa SprintCandip bounced back from a poor race last out at Churchill Downs to win the $100,000 Iowa Sprint.Stalking and pressing on the outside after breaking from post 8, Candip took the lead from Dream Saturday at the stretch call and beat that rival by three-quarters of a length, with Wilbo just a nose farther back in third.The 5-year-old Candip, claimed for $32,000 in May 2015 by his current connections, owner K Town Partners and trainer Mike Tomlinson, hit peak form over the winter at Gulfstream Park, when he won a high-end allowance race and finished a close second to the good sprinter X Y Jet in the Gulfstream Park Sprint.But returning from a layoff May 19 in a Churchill allowance race, Candip appeared to have reverted to a lesser version of himself, finishing a distant sixth after a wide trip. That race, it now seems, merely gave Candip fuel for his return to stakes competition, as he traveled forwardly from the start under Terry Thompson, always racing on the bridle while relaxed.I was able to watch and see how it set up down on the inside, Thompson said. I was able to sit to the quarter pole and when I called on him he ran big down the lane.Dream Saturday set a strong pace of 22.11 and 44.60 seconds, and held firm to the finish, but he did not have quite enough left to contain the winner, who ran six furlongs on a fast track in 1:08.98. W.B. Smudge got a pocket trip and loomed past the quarter pole, but had no late zip and finished a well-beaten fourth as the second choice, just edging tepid favorite Storm Power.Candip ($10.60), a gelding, is by Candy Ride out of the Storm Cat mare Indefinable, and was bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm. His career record now stands at 22-7-4-2. 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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Damian Lillard makes the first of his two annual trips to his hometown on Saturday night when the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Golden State Warriors.The goal: Set the stage for closing down Oracle Arena for the summer with a return visit in the playoffs.The Trail Blazers had a chance to do just that last May but lost three straight in Oakland in a 4-1 defeat in the Western Conference semifinals.Those were three of seven straight losses that Portland has endured in Oakland since Nov. 23, 2013.And those games -- especially the four in the regular season -- havent been close.The Warriors put a 128-112 and 136-111 thumping on the Trail Blazers in their two regular-season visits last season. Overall, Golden State has averaged a 16.8-point margin of victory in its four-game regular-season home run over Portland.If any player is capable of turning that around, its Lillard. After all, he had 20 points and nine assists as a rookie in the 2013 win, and he crushed the Warriors with 51 points in a 137-105 home win over Golden State last January.Unfortunately for the Trail Blazers, it seems recent wins over the two-time Western Conference champs have only inspired them to greater things. The Warriors responded to the 32-point shellacking last season with the subsequent 16- and 25-point home wins, followed by the 4-1 playoff triumph.Lillard often hasnt been at his best in front of family and old friends in Oakland. He did have a 38-point outing in his mmost recent regular-season visit last April, but that followed a 5-of-19, 17-point dud a month earlier when he missed nine of his 10 3-point attempts.ddddddddddddThe point guard enters Saturdays visit on a bit of a roll. Hed already had three 30-point games this month before exploding for 40, two off his season high, in Thursdays loss at Denver.Portland was coming off a 114-95 thrashing of the Oklahoma Thunder two nights earlier.We werent the same team that we have been the last few games, Lillard told reporters after the Denver loss.Warriors coach Steve Kerr, meanwhile, wasnt happy with his teams play Thursday night, either. But his team was good enough to win anyway, 103-90 at home over the New York Knicks.The game featured 36 consecutive Warriors baskets on which they were credited with assists. They finished with 41 assists on 45 hoops, the first team this season with an assist on more than 90 percent of its shots.That was the lone bright spot of the game, Kerr said to reporters afterward. They really look for each other. Thats a theme almost every night. Thats such a great quality to have as a team.The Warriors had 45 assists on 50 baskets in their 127-104 win at Portland last month.Lillard was the games top scorer with 31 points but missed 11 of his 19 shots from the field and registered a minus-29 plus/minus in his 32 minutes. ' ' '