At age three, she developed into one of the top Thoroughbreds in North America, going undefeated in the 1991 racing season. In her first two starts of the year, she was ridden by Brian Swatuk to easy victories in the Star Shoot and Selene Stakes. In the remainder of her three-year-old campaign, she was ridden by American Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day. Her victory in the Canadian Oaks, Canada's most important race for three-year-old fillies, was so dominant that her owner decided to race her next against the colts. Dance Smartly became the second filly (after Queensway in 1932) to capture the Canadian Triple Crown by winning the Queen's Plate, the Prince of Wales Stakes, and the Breeders' Stakes by a combined eighteen lengths. She next won the Molson Export Million, earning her first graded stakes victory as her previous races had been restricted to Canadian-bred horses.