Frankel’s Questioning of Birdstone Spurs Zito

The rainy morning after the Belmont Stakes, trainer Bobby Frankel questioned whether Birdstone, the Triple Crown spoiler, could defeat Smarty Jones if they met again. Frankel’s comment, relayed to Nick Zito, drew an angry response from the trainer who engineered his first Belmont win.

Frankel won the Belmont last year, when his Empire Maker knocked off Triple Crown aspirant Funny Cide, but Frankel’s Master David finished a poor seventh Saturday, trailing Birdstone by more than 30 lengths. Smarty Jones, who finished one length behind Birdstone, lost out on the Triple Crown and a $5-million bonus that would have accompanied a sweep of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

“Such a little skinny horse winning this race,” Frankel said. “If Smarty Jones ran against Birdstone two months from now, it would be no contest.”

Throwing rocks at Birdstone did not sit well with the Brooklyn-born Zito, who had run 11 horses in the Belmont before winning his hometown race. Zito also picked up third-place money Saturday with Royal Assault, as his barn took home $710,000 of the $1-million purse.

“Where was [Frankel’s horse] yesterday?” Zito said, throwing up his hands. “That’s the quote of the year. Frankel needed Allen Jerkens to train his horse yesterday.”

Zito’s reference was to the Hall of Fame, Belmont Park-based trainer who liked Master David’s chances in the Belmont. Frankel cited Jerkens’ optimism as a reason for running Master David.

Birdstone, who paid $74 to win as the seventh choice in the nine-horse field, won the Champagne Stakes at Belmont in his final start of last year. This year, he was lightly campaigned, winning an allowance race at Gulfstream Park, finishing fifth in a stake at Turfway Park and running eighth in the Kentucky Derby, on a day when he blew one of his front shoes. Zito kept Birdstone out of the Preakness and saved him for the Belmont, which came five weeks after the Derby.

“If Birdstone had run in all three [Triple Crown] races, you could have slid him under a door,” Frankel said of the slightly built colt.

The week of the Belmont, Zito said there was a joke going around his barn about “where we might find 100 pounds to put on Birdstone.”

Zito doesn’t know how much Birdstone weighs, but he estimates that he’s well under 1,000 pounds.

“I don’t want to weigh him, to be honest with you,” Zito said. “I don’t want to get into an 800-pound thing.”

Zito thought some more about Frankel’s remarks.

“[This has] really woke me up,” Zito said. “Smarty Jones could beat just about any horse. He was worthy, but it was a mile-and-a-half race.”

Frankel and other trainers, including Smarty Jones’ conditioner, John Servis, have exonerated Stewart Elliott, whose ride in the Belmont was questioned. Frankel said that Smarty Jones is the best of the six horses who won the first two legs of the Triple Crown in the last eight years.

“It’s a shame Smarty Jones didn’t win the Belmont,” Frankel said. “But don’t blame the jockey. It’s the Derby and the Preakness that got Smarty Jones beat. Birdstone didn’t have to run in all those tough races like Smarty Jones did.”

Servis, who shipped Smarty Jones back to his home track, Philadelphia Park, at mid-morning Sunday, said the horse would be rested for a month before a campaign is mapped out. The end-of-the-season goal is the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30. Possible races along the way would be the Haskell at Monmouth Park, the Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia and a race -- perhaps at Belmont -- against older horses.

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The Belmont Stakes’ preliminary overnight rating, which measures the nation’s 56 largest markets, was a 13.4 with a 27 share of the audience for NBC. That’s a 29% increase over last year’s overnight of 10.4/22. The highest national rating for the Belmont was a 15.4 in 1977, when Seattle Slew completed the Triple Crown.

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Medaglia d’Oro, a consistent colt who earned $5.7 million, was sold by Ed Gann of Rancho Santa Fe to Never Tell Farm in Kentucky and has been retired to stud. Trainer Frankel didn’t disclose the price. Medaglia d’Oro, who will start his stallion career next year at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Lexington, Ky., had eight wins and seven seconds in 17 starts.

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Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this report.