Wow, that was impressive

Agreed. Vey impressive.

Heck of a run. How good of a shot does he have in the Belmont, with the longer distance? Seems the way he's run in the first two, that plays to his strengths even better.

That was extremely impressive. I really like his chances in the Belmont. As you mentioned, I think the distance will likely play to his strength as he was really showing some impressive stamina towards the end of the Preakness.

The Belmont is always the great equalizer though. I think the extra length may result in a forgotten horse winning it. When you have a horse who wins the Derby and the Preakness, always bet the field in the Belmont ;).

And of course, it ain't just the length which is problematic at Belmont, but the fact you can't use Lasics and other drugs you can use in Kentucky and Maryland.

6th time in 8 years that a horse is heading into the Belmont going for the Triple Crown. Thats pretty amazing in itself. But to me it says that the Belmont is a different race than the earlier two. Im not a big race fan, but Smarty Jones situation and dominance today seems to be reminiscent of War Emblem a few years back.

I know nothing about horseracing, so what occurred during the race means nothing to me in context, but I can say I learned one interesting fact from watching the race coverage - Maryland's state song is O Tannenbaum. Couldn't even come up with something original as the state song. Quite odd.

Actually, isn't it Maryland, My Maryland?

Actually, my wife was singing O Tannenbaum as they sang the state song too. Same music, different words.

Very impressive.

Last year, when Funny Cide won, he too looked visually very impressive pulling away from the field. However, on closer inspection (studing fractional times) it turned out that what really happened was that most of the field was just tiring badly, and Funny Cide's stretch run was at a fairly pedestrian pace -- just looked powerful by comparison.

Smarty Jones's final 1.5 furlongs were in 19 1/5 seconds, I believe -- not super-sizzling, but certainly pretty respectable. His trainer wanted to see him burst out today, and that's exactly what he did.

I don't think there is a horse who can beat him -- the only hurdle is if he runs into either a stange pace scenario (unlikely) or distance problems (more likely) in the Belmont.

I expect him to go off at 1-5 in the Belmont (maybe 2-5, but not higher) and it will be damned tough to make a case for another horse as the "one you liike" for anything but value.

I think if he gets a bad post and gets either pinned on the rail or stuck wayyyyyy outside if prob the only way he will be beaten.

Funny Cide had a nice run at the KD and he lucked out at the easy run of the Preakness. The Belmont, he faced a much harder competition. There isn't that kind of "great" horse leading up to this years races.

anyone know what his speed figure was in the Preakness? I though Rock Hard Ten was going to overtake him, and Smarty Jones just kicked everyone's ass...

I also heard it said that he won by the largest margin in Preakness history...

Again, a great job by the SMARTY JONES team. That said, I'm going to jump of the SJ Love Train for the Belmont. Too many other horses looked good going into that race and were defeated there. And there are some talented horses out there who have the pedigree for long distance running (TAPIT, CASTLEDALE, and ACTION THIS DAY, to name three), which SJ doesn't have.

I'll want to take a look at the complete list of horses that are running before making a definitive decarative statement that SMARTY JONES won't win the Belmont. But at 2-5... I'd be inclined to take a stand against him.

I think if he gets a bad post and gets either pinned on the rail or stuck wayyyyyy outside if prob the only way he will be beaten.

If there is any race at any track where post position is a non-factor, it's the Belmont Stakes. They run a *very* long straightaway run from an extended gate before hitting the first turn. There is *plenty* of time for any tactical speed to get sorted out well before the position relative to the rail becomes important. I consider post position a zero factor in the Belmont.

Eventually, another horse is going to win the Triple Crown. It may as well be this year.

triple crown party in 3 weeks....

It seems to me that there are a lot of parallels between Smarty Jones and Seattle Slew.

I haven't seen the figure but if you assume Rock Hard Ten ran about 100 then Smarty is up in the 120 range.

Barring injury or something very out of the ordinary it's Triple Crown year. This horse runs just like Cigar in his prime.

is it me or is anyone disturbed by all these horses having a chance at the Triple Crown? like, during the 80's after the last horse did it in the late 70's, was there always a Triple Crown candidate like every year? or is this a recent phenomenom. if it isn't i'm starting to think some level of foul play is at work here. just seems too contrived, too manipulative. like the horse racing bureau has a lot to gain by having a Triple Crown candidate to follow. makes people pay more attention and follow along. for the non-horse racing fan, how interesting is the Belmont if there isn't a chance to see a horse win the TC?

like how all the conspiracy theories suggest foul play when it comes to the best players going to the biggest markets in NBA, i'm starting to become suspicious of this sort of thing. Jones dominated the 2nd half of the Preakness too well. take it for what it's worth from a non-horse racing fan.

Looks like he ran a 118. He's the real deal...

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By Andrew Beyer

Monday, May 17, 2004; Page D01

<nitf> </nitf>

The skeptics are silenced. Knowledgeable fans are convinced. Rival trainers and jockeys are agog. All can jump on the Smarty Jones bandwagon now. His Preakness victory was one of the most convincing performances by a 3-year-old in years.

Smarty Jones's 111/2-length triumph sets him apart from other horses who have come this far and been in a position to complete a historic sweep of the Triple Crown. Yes, there was just as much hype for Funny Cide last year, and plenty for War Emblem in 2002 and Charismatic in 1999, and they turned out to be disappointments after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. But none of them had the versatility, consistency and raw ability of the improbable star from Pennsylvania.

It was difficult to assess Smarty Jones after his triumph at Churchill Downs because his running time was unimpressive and the sloppy, speed-favoring track may have aided him. There were no such ambiguities at Pimlico, and people who can recognize an exceptional thoroughbred knew they had seen the real thing. Patrick Biancone, who has trained high-class horses on three continents, hailed Smarty Jones as "a great champion." Veteran jockey Gary Stevens said, "That's as good as any horse I've ever seen," and mentioned the Preakness winner in the same breath as Secretariat.

Runaway victories can sometimes be deceptive, but objective evidence verified the quality of Smarty Jones's performance. On the day before the Preakness, some of the best older horses in the country contested the Pimlico Special, and the high-class California invader Southern Image won it by running 13/16 miles in 1:55.89. The Pimlico racing surface, which has been slower lately than in previous years, was virtually identical the next day, when Smarty Jones sped the same distance in 1:55.59. It is extraordinary for a young 3-year-old to run faster than top-class older horses.

His effort earned him a tie for the second-best Beyer Speed Figure in a Triple Crown race since we began publishing these ratings in 1987. Easy Goer recorded a figure of 122 in the 1989 Belmont Stakes. Summer Squall and Silver Charm got ratings of 118 in the Preaknesses of 1990 and 1997, respectively. Smarty Jones's 118 puts him into some illustrious company.

The Preakness underscored the virtues that make Smarty Jones such a formidable competitor. He has the magical combination of speed and tractability that makes jockey Stewart Elliott say, "He's push-button." Smarty Jones broke from the gate at Pimlico with the alacrity of a sprinter, but when Lion Heart expectedly rushed to the lead, Elliott put his mount under just enough restraint to secure second place, stalking the leader -- just where he wanted to be.

As Lion Heart raced some three paths away from the rail, Elliott dropped to the inside approach at the final turn. When he challenged his move, he would have to be quick to secure his position, in case Lion Heart and Mike Smith tried to shut him off. Elliott pushed the button, Smarty Jones accelerated sharply inside the leader and took command of the Preakness.

In the stretch, he unleashed a finishing kick that belied his reputation as a speed horse. Even though Rock Hard Ten was making a respectable move to launch a challenge, Smarty Jones ran away and left him for dead. "I had another gear left," said Stevens, the rider of the runner-up, "but Smarty Jones had four more."

Horses with push-button speed are the most effective racehorses because they can adapt to almost any circumstances. The racehorse who epitomized this type was the great Affirmed, whose controllable speed regularly enabled him to beat his arch rival Alydar. In the coming weeks, the names of Affirmed and Smarty Jones will be mentioned together frequently, as Smarty seeks to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

Smarty Jones's superior talent does not ensure that he will complete the sweep at Belmont Park June 5. The 11/2-mile distance of the Belmont Stakes has foiled many great horses, and it could expose one potential vulnerability in Smarty Jones: his pedigree. He has overcome his sprint-oriented bloodlines so far, but he is not constituted to be an effective 11/2-mile runner.

His pedigree will be the subject of much discussion during the next three weeks, but for now the racing world should savor the emergence of a bona fide star who merits all the acclaim he is receiving.

Other recent bids for the Triple Crown have stirred mixed emotions among racing purists who knew that the likes of Funny Cide, War Emblem and Charismatic did not deserve to have their names on a list with the sport's immortals. But after the performance that Smarty Jones delivered to make his record 8 for 8, nobody could question that he would be worthy of a Triple Crown.



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is it me or is anyone disturbed by all these horses having a chance at the Triple Crown? like, during the 80's after the last horse did it in the late 70's, was there always a Triple Crown candidate like every year? or is this a recent phenomenom. if it isn't i'm starting to think some level of foul play is at work here. just seems too contrived, too manipulative. like the horse racing bureau has a lot to gain by having a Triple Crown candidate to follow. makes people pay more attention and follow along. for the non-horse racing fan, how interesting is the Belmont if there isn't a chance to see a horse win the TC?

like how all the conspiracy theories suggest foul play when it comes to the best players going to the biggest markets in NBA, i'm starting to become suspicious of this sort of thing. Jones dominated the 2nd half of the Preakness too well. take it for what it's worth from a non-horse racing fan.
First of all, one of the biggest reasons why horse racing lost so much popularity over the years (compared to baseball, football, etc.), is because there ISN'T a "horse racing bureau" or any central management of the sport. No one to negotiate TV, merchandising, or advertising deals on behalf of the entire sport. Horse racing is a business comprised of thousands of different owners, racetracks, trainers, horses, and jockeys, and none of them are very organized and only a few enjoy even the smallest sort of affiliation. So, I really don't think there's much chance of a conspiracy at work here.

The reason why it seems like so many horses win the Derby and the Preakness, and then fail at the Belmont, is because the Derby and the Preakness are comparable types of races - if you can win at 1 1/4 miles at Churchill Downs, it's not asking much to win at 1 3/16 miles at Pimlico. However, the 1 1/2 miles distance at Belmont requires a horse to race at an entirely different level... speed horses that look great at 1 1/4 often fade at 1 1/2; just as horses who have the stamina to make it 1 1/2 often don't have the speed to beat a fast horse at 1 1/4. That's why Triple Crown winners are so rare - it takes a unique type of animal to be versatile enough to win at each distance, and have enough endurance to win three races against the best horses of his generation over a period of 5 weeks.

The reason why people are much higher on Smarty Jones than they are on previous contenders is the style in which he is winning. First of all, he's never lost a race... that's huge, no matter how much you try to take away from his earlier competition. Second, he won the Derby running in the slop, and then came back to win the Preakness with a masterful display of tactical speed and sharp moves... and when he finished, he was still pulling away from Rock Hard Ten, a horse who is supposed to have a greater deal of endurance than Smarty Jones. That race could have gone on for another 1/2 mile, and no horse in the field would have caught him. So while his pedigree says otherwise, Smarty Jones looks like a horse that has the stamina to go 1 1/2 miles, and he's a gamer... he just knows how to win.

The only losing scenario barring falling or injury is Elliot getting locked up on the front end somehow and going at it with someone on a very fast pace.

That's how Cigar got beat. Bailey decided to mix it up with Siphon through ridiculous fractions and he couldn't hold off Dare and Go after a half in like 44.