Smarty Jones Races for Place in History

By Bill Christine

June 5, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

ELMONT, N.Y. —

Triple Crown or triple letdown?

The odds, if not necessarily the Belmont Stakes gods, point toward Smarty Jones winning today and scoring a rare sweep in the series. Then the racing pundits could turn to their next task: Finding the proper niche for the modestly built red colt among the 11 previous Triple Crown winners.

Not trying to sound premature, John Servis, the once-obscure Philadelphia Park trainer who has shepherded the undefeated Smarty Jones through eight straight wins, made an assessment of his own Friday morning at Belmont Park, where the horse took a practice tour of today’s starting gate.

“If he wins the Belmont, I think you could compare him to Seattle Slew,” Servis said. “I compared this horse to Seattle Slew early on. Seattle Slew was such a good horse that he could maintain an unbelievable early pace in a race, and then drive the other horses into the ground.”

Smarty Jones has won often by substantial margins, including his record 11 1/2-length romp in the Preakness three weeks ago. In the Kentucky Derby, two weeks before that, he launched his Triple Crown campaign with a 2 3/4-length victory.

Seattle Slew, in 1977, was the 10th Triple Crown winner. He also went into the Belmont having won eight straight. Affirmed won the Triple Crown most recently, in 1978, but most polls of premier horses have ranked Seattle Slew ahead of him. A poll by Blood-Horse magazine in 1999 pegged Seattle Slew at No. 9. Years before that, Thoroughbred Racing Action ranked Seattle Slew No. 6. Man o’ War, who never ran in the Triple Crown, usually heads these polls, with Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner, not far behind.

Several Triple Crown pretenders have come this way in recent years. Since Silver Charm, in 1997, and most recently with Funny Cide last year, there have been five near misses in the Belmont since 1997.

Smarty Jones’ Belmont chances, which hardly needed bolstering to begin with, have been enhanced by a new weather forecast. What was to be a pleasant, sunny day has changed to overnight rain, followed by steady rain most of today. The temperature is not expected to top 65 degrees. Belmont Park, which will be crammed with more than 100,000 fans, may look like Churchill Downs on Derby day by the time the Belmont Stakes is run at 3:38 PDT.

Smarty Jones reveled in the sloppy going at the Derby, and before that had shrugged off a muddy track in winning the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

The track condition today “could be real bad,” Servis said. “I hope it’s not as bad as it was in Kentucky. But the good thing is that my horse can run on anything.”

Eight other horses are entered, but trainer Bobby Frankel, who saddled Empire Maker, last year’s Belmont winner, said that Master David might be scratched if there was an off-track. Master David finished 12th in the rain in Louisville, one of many horses who foundered in the Derby.

Servis says that this is a solid group of 3-year-olds, but Birdstone is the only Grade I winner in the field, besides Smarty Jones, and Birdstone’s major win was eight months and two resounding defeats ago.

“Where do you sign up for second place?” said Nick Zito, Birdstone’s trainer, in an uncharacteristic rush of candor earlier this week. “But if we finished second to Smarty Jones, what would be wrong with that?”

Smarty Jones’ rivals are running for $1 million, the Belmont purse, but also on the line for Servis’ colt is a $5-million insurance-protected bonus from Visa USA, which sponsors the Triple Crown. Cigar, who raced in the 1990s, holds the North American record for earnings, but his total of almost $10 million can be surpassed today by Smarty Jones, who won an earlier $5-million bonus from Oaklawn Park.

Smarty Jones, 2-5 on the morning line, has been favored in all but one of his races. Purge was favored at 2-1 and Smarty Jones was 7-2 when Smarty won the Rebel Stakes in Arkansas in March. Purge, who finished second in the Rebel, did worse in the Arkansas Derby, running fifth, but he goes into the Belmont with a sharp win in the Peter Pan here two weeks ago.

“We’ve changed his tactics since the Rebel,” said Todd Pletcher, who trains Purge. “We hope to rate him off another horse in the Belmont.”

Under Stewart Elliott, who has ridden Smarty Jones in all his races, Servis’ colt could be the Belmont pacesetter.

“We’ll have a bull’s-eye on our backs,” Servis said. “But I’ve got no concerns about the distance. Our horse is still very strong. When we put him on a van and leave Philadelphia Park, he seems to know what’s coming. He’s getting his game face on and he’s ready.”

Stewart, 39, has won 3,300 races, most of them at minor league tracks like Philadelphia Park. He’s occasionally ridden at Belmont Park, which has wide, sweeping turns, but the Belmont will be his first race at the track this year.

Elliott has no mounts in the 10 races before the Belmont, so he’ll spend all day in the jockeys’ room, waiting for his historical ride, win or lose.

“I wouldn’t want to sit in that room all day,” said an eager Servis, who was ready to saddle his Belmont horse days ago. “But Stewart’s done it before. He did it at Churchill Downs. The Derby was the only race he rode that day.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Belmont Stakes

Field, in post-position order, for today’s 136th Belmont Stakes. Post: 3:30 p.m. PDT. TV: Ch. 4 (coverage begins at 2:30).

*--* PP HORSE Jockey Odds 1. MASTER DAVID Jose Santos 20-1 2. PURGE John Velazquez 5-1 3. CAIMAN Ramon Dominguez 50-1 4. BIRDSTONE Edgar Prado 15-1 5. ROCK HARD TEN Alex Solis 8-1 6. ROYAL ASSAULT Pat Day 20-1 7. TAP DANCER Javier Castellano 50-1 8. EDDINGTON Jerry Bailey 10-1 9. SMARTY JONES Stewart Elliott 2-5

*--*

Successes and Failures

Eleven 3-year-olds have won the Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont stakes). Seventeen have failed by losing in the Belmont.

SUCCESS

1978...Affirmed

1977...Seattle Slew

1973...Secretariat

1948...Citation

1946...Assault

1943...Count Fleet

1941...Whirlaway

1937...War Admiral