Smelly Will Try to Cause a Stir on the Track, Too

“And the Winner by a Nose Is--Smelly!” said a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle recently.

“Smelly Has That Certain Air,” said a headline in the Daily Racing Form.

There’s no accounting for taste in the naming of race horses. Colder Thana and Drop Your Drawers have been approved by Jockey Club authorities through the years, so there was no reason to reject Smelly, especially since he’s a son of Judge Smells, a stallion named after a character in the movie “Caddyshack.”

So Smelly, the 3-year-old with the repugnant name, makes the most important start of his career today in the $75,000 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park, where the Florida Derby will be run in five weeks. The seven-furlong Hutcheson and the Fountain of Youth on March 3 are tuneups for the Florida Derby, which is a major prep for the Kentucky Derby May 5.

Smelly has won five of 10 starts, including a couple of minor stakes in an unusually busy 2-year-old season. He is not given much chance to win the Hutcheson, which has drawn a 12-horse field. He’s 12-1 on the morning line, with the favorites being Eclipse Award winner Rhythm at 5-2, Housebuster at 3-1 and Yonder and Stalker, both at 8-1.

Bob Watkins, who bought Smelly as a yearling for $23,000, lives in Maryland and most of his colt’s races have been there. Smelly won the Bimelech at Laurel and the Heritage at Philadelphia Park.

Watkins has heard unfavorable comments about the horse’s name, and for $100 he could change it, but that is unlikely.

“I don’t think the horse knows his name,” Watkins said.