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The Belmont Stakes - GO SMARTY JONES !

2004 Belmont Stakes Entries and Post Positions


June 4, 2004

3yo - Grade 1 - 1 1/2 miles - Dirt - $1,000,000

PP Horse Jockey Trainer Odds
-- ----- ------ ------- ----

1 Master David Jose Santos Bobby Frankel 20-1

2 Purge John Velazquez Todd Pletcher 5-1

3 Caiman Ramon Dominguez Angel Medina 50-1

4 Birdstone Edgar Prado Nick Zito 15-1

5 Rock Hard Ten Alex Solis Jason Orman 8-1

6 Royal Assault Pat Day Nick Zito 20-1

7 Tap Dancer Javier Castellano Edward Allard 50-1

8 Eddington Jerry Bailey Mark Hennig 10-1

9 Smarty Jones Stewart Elliott John Servis 2-5

All starters will carry 126 pounds.

Race 11 of 13 - 135th running
Site: Belmont Park - Elmont, New York
Post time: 6:38 p.m. EDT (NBC)
2003 winner: Empire Maker

Stakes & Track Record: Secretariat - 2:24 (1973)
 
Re: Re: The Belmont Stakes - GO SMARTY JONES !

bootgrrl said:
I'll drink to that! :D

He's definitely THE man of the hour around here...

...check out my 'Location' info, Salty.
Click to expand...
That's Awesome Bootgrrl....:p - I guess mine should say 12.5 hours South of Smarty ..... Hee HEe
 
Re: Re: Re: The Belmont Stakes - GO SMARTY JONES !

CharlotteNCguy said:
That's Awesome Bootgrrl....:p - I guess mine should say 12.5 hours South of Smarty ..... Hee HEe
Click to expand...

Except we all know your location NEVER changes! ;)
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: The Belmont Stakes - GO SMARTY JONES !

bootgrrl said:
Except we all know your location NEVER changes! ;)
Click to expand...
The woman makes a good point ! (it prolly won't either) :p
 
The three-year-olds who have won racing's Triple Crown
(Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes):

1978 Affirmed
1977 Seattle Slew
1973 Secretariat
1948 Citation
1946 Assault
1943 Count Fleet
1941 Whirlaway
1937 War Admiral
1935 Omaha
1930 Gallant Fox
1919 Sir Barton
 
Go Smarty Jones!!!! He is one hell of a horse!!! Ride On Smarty!!
 
Smarty Jones story full of twists

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By C. RAY HALL
chall@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


BY BILL LUSTER, THE C-J
Smarty Jones, the Arkansas Derby winner who is 6 for 6 in his career, got a bath yesterday. His story may be the most intriguing of all Derby contenders.

Smarty Jones jockey Stewart Elliott will ride in his first Kentucky Derby on Saturday.


Pat Chapman owns Smarty Jones with her husband, Roy, and named the colt after her mother, Mildred "Smarty Jones" McNair.

Every Kentucky Derby roils and rolls into something that becomes The Story.

This year The Story — whatever it turns out to be — already has been lapped by the back story.

The Smarty Jones story involves a plot line older than Hollywood — a cast of unknowns faces adversity, catches a rising star and wins one for the little guy.

The Smarty Jones story also involves:


An undersized 3-year-old Pennsylvania-bred who flirted with self-destruction last year, lying in the dirt in a bleeding, unconscious heap. The sight caused his trainer, John Servis, to exclaim, "Oh my God, the horse killed himself."

A trainer and a jockey — Stewart Elliott — appearing in their first Derby. It has been 25 years since such a combination won the race.

Two unlikely owners — a car dealer and a former social worker. One of them, Roy Chapman, is so sick from emphysema that he may not make it to Churchill Downs for Saturday's race.

A payday that could be the richest in racing history for a single horse — nearly $6 million in purse and bonuses.

A horse so coveted that one suitor asked the owners to "name their price." They declared him not for sale, even for a blank check.

A horse with a mysterious name and an even more mysterious fate. Is he as perfect as his record — six wins in six starts — or will he be perfectly exposed as a pretender on Saturday? ("You can't knock this horse," rival trainer John Kimmel said. "You can knock him on his pedigree. But he doesn't know his pedigree. Any horse that comes into this race undefeated is special.")

The memory of a slain trainer whose matchmaking produced Smarty Jones.

The spirit of the real Smarty Jones, a lady all the way.
The story already trumps fiction, even if you don't know its most heartbreaking side. Mortality hangs over this tale, even as the horse and his human connections grasp for a sliver of immortality.


The owners, a Pennsylvania couple named Roy and Pat Chapman, employed a trainer named Bob Camac. He suggested the Chapmans buy a yearling filly at Keeneland. They spent $40,000 for I'll Get Along, who won some small stakes races. Camac eventually arranged a breeding session with a stallion named Elusive Quality. The result was Smarty Jones.

Nine months later Camac and his wife, Maryann, were found shot to death in their New Jersey home. Maryann's son, Wade Russell, eventually was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Press accounts said Camac suspected his stepson of forgery and theft and meant to confront him.

The Chapmans already were cutting back their farm operation because of Roy's health. After Camac's death, they came close to leaving horse racing altogether.

"Mr. and Mrs. Chapman were so devastated that they actually were planning on getting out of the business," Servis said.

They sold most of their stock. But Pat Chapman recalls this counsel from veteran horseman George Isaacs, who broke their horses in Florida: "This is a real nice colt," he said of Smarty Jones. "You might not want to sell this one."

The Chapmans kept Smarty Jones and three other horses. They also kept Camac's memory.

"He's with us," Pat Chapman said. "Bob Camac's hand is on this colt, I tell you."

Several of Camac's clients sent their horses to his friend, Servis, a 45-year-old trainer who grew up as a jockey's son in Charles Town, W.Va. He lives in Bensalem, Pa., near Philadelphia Park, which became Smarty Jones' training ground. It almost became his burial ground.

SMARTY is a hard-charging colt who challenges his 170-pound exercise rider, Pete Van Trump, for control. Last July, Smarty's handlers were trying to train him to work in the starting gate. He reared, struck his head on an iron bar and crumpled.

"The first thing I thought was he was dead," Servis recalled.

"It was pretty bad. He knocked himself out for a good 30 seconds. I mean, his head was actually up underneath his body. ... The blood was pouring out of his nostrils from the internal damage."

In the barn, a veterinarian attended the injured colt.

"He started swelling fast," Servis said. "The inflammation — you couldn't see his eyeball at all — and the tissue was pushed out of his eye socket. I mean, the tissue was out about that far. (He spreads a thumb and forefinger about 3 inches.) And I said, `Boy we gotta get this horse to the hospital.'"

Smarty was shipped to New Jersey Equine Center. Servis wondered how he would break the news to the Chapmans.

"I was thinking the worst," he said. "I was dreading making this phone call."

A veterinarian, Patricia Hogan, called with encouraging news. Smarty had a broken orbital bone and multiple hairline fractures. But his injuries were not life-threatening, and the doctor reassured him: "He's a good patient. ... He's going to need some time, but I think he'll be fine."

Smarty spent three weeks in the hospital and a month on the farm before Servis eased him back into training. At first he walked Smarty around the track and let him stand and simply look at the starting gate. He was hesitant around the gate for a while, but now, Servis said, "I think he'll be fine."

SMARTY JONES got his name from a little girl who grew up in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the 1920s.

Her given name was Mildred McNair, but her grandparents, Mama and Papa Jones, nicknamed her Smarty Jones.

"She was probably a little bit of a smart aleck," said Mildred's daughter, Pat Chapman.

Smarty turned out to be a tall, slim, dark-haired woman who spent her adult life in Georgia and New Jersey. She painted for fun — and occasional profit.

She was, her daughter said, "an incredible woman. She loved to tell an off-color joke. But she was a lady all the way."

She was 68 when she died in 1989.

Twelve years later, on Smarty's birthday — Feb. 28 — a colt was born in Pennsylvania. Pat recalls thinking: "`I'd love to name this horse after my mother.' But I didn't want to name him Mildred."

Pat, who is handy with a name, apparently isn't as handy with fame.

"We've only been celebrities two weeks," she said, "and it's already wearing us out."

Her mother would have handled this with more aplomb, she thinks.

"She would have loved this," Pat Chapman said. "My husband and I keep talking about and saying, `Would she be eating this up?' She would enjoy talking to all the media."

Smarty's daughter Pat eventually went off to a smart girls' school, Bryn Mawr, where she earned a master's degree in social work. Pat was running the DUI program in Bucks County, Pa., in the mid-1970s when she decided to buy a new car. A friend told her to go see a dealer named Roy "Chappy" Chapman.

"When I met him, he had his arm in a cast and I said, `Oh, my, what happened to your arm?'

"He said, `I was out fox hunting a couple of weeks ago and had an accident. The horse fell on me.' And I knew then that he was the most fascinating person I had ever known. I had never known anyone who had been fox hunting."

Or, for that matter, anyone who had a horse fall on him.

Chappy sold Pat a 1976 Ford Granada. Six years later they were married, combining their families (his three children, her two). They eventually bought a 100-acre farm. After promising themselves they'd get around to various projects "someday," they named the place Someday Farm.

TO THE Chapmans' Pennsylvania neighbors, Smarty Jones is a folk hero. He may be an even bigger celebrity in Arkansas, where Oaklawn is celebrating its centennial with a $5million offer for a horse who wins the Rebel Stakes, Arkansas Derby and Kentucky Derby. Smarty is one victory away. Fans at Oaklawn will try to root him home Saturday with a Smarty party.

It wasn't the $5 million incentive that brought Smarty to Arkansas.

"It's kind of embarrassing," Servis said, "but I didn't even know about the centennial bonus."

He figured the path of least resistance to the Derby ran through Arkansas.

He told the owners: "The more time we can give this horse to mature, the better he's going to get. The last thing you want is to push him before he's ready."

He remembers their response: "You take the route you want to take. Just get him to the Derby. That's all we want."

SOME FOLKS have tried to buy the Chapmans' Derby dream out from under them.

"My husband, being a car dealer, if you start dealing, that gets his blood boiling," Pat said. "One man had called wanting to buy the horse, and he said, `Name your price.' I mean, we kept turning down offers. `Name your price.' My husband said, `Oh, my, this is really getting my attention.'

"And I said, `Look, let's you and me, let's get serious here together. If we sold the horse for five-plus million, what would we do differently in our life? Tell me one thing we would do differently.

"I said, `Our kids are having such a ball with this. It's just so exciting. And he said, `Yeah, you're right. You're right.'

"So of course he's not for sale. In my mind he's never been for sale. But my husband did entertain it briefly."

It's not certain her 77-year-old husband will make it to the Derby.

"Some days, he's really good," Pat said the other day from Florida, where the Chapmans have a second home.

"You'll be talking to him and you think this man doesn't have a problem, but other days he's really struggling. Every breath is a struggle."

Still, they hope to be at Churchill on Saturday.

"We're doing everything in our power to get him there," she said. "He is really wearing out. This whole thing, the adrenaline, the excitement, he is so tired.

"He's very tired now and wondering how he's going to do it. But I said, `We've got to get you there, and we'll spend most of our time in the (hotel) room, but you need to be there for that Derby.' I said, `If you can't make it to the race that day, don't worry.'"

A FEW hours before she spoke — and a few hundred miles north — a gentle rain pattered on the roof of Barn 42 at Churchill Downs. Smarty Jones' trainer opened a piece of paper that carried the printed name of Sydney McWard, a preschooler in Carlinville, Ill.

Her crayon drawing showed the Twin Spires. A bean-shaped brown object hovered nearby, like a spaceship. Or maybe the sun. It was shooting out things that appeared to be sunbeams but turned out to be a horse's legs, tail and head. It was Smarty Jones, who seemed to be levitating.

Imagine the connections running through that drawing. They started with a little girl in Alabama. In a different century they connected a horse in Pennsylvania and a little girl in Illinois. And, no doubt, a few million dreamers in the times and spaces between.

"I'm going to frame it," the trainer said.

The drawing probably wasn't worth much on the art market. But in the market of myths and dreams, it was like Smarty Jones.

All of a sudden, priceless.
 
CharlotteNCguy said:
The three-year-olds who have won racing's Triple Crown
(Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes):


1935 Omaha
Click to expand...

What a horse to follow in history!:D
He is buried just a few blocks from my house.
 
America needs Smarty Jones to win today.

We need a break from depressing news. We need a sports hero who is absolutely certain never to get arrested or be called before a grand jury. In a complicated time, we need something simple and sweet.

Smarty Jones is it. The red chestnut colt is pure horsepower -- an undefeated 3-year-old who can win the Triple Crown today at 6:38 p.m. with a victory in the Belmont Stakes.

Affirmed was the last horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. That was in 1978, the same year "Animal House" debuted in theaters and the Bee Gees ruled as disco kings. No horse has pulled off the Triple Crown in the 26 years since. One near miss after another has tormented a sport long in search of the next Secretariat or Seabiscuit.

But Smarty Jones has been perfect so far -- eight wins in eight starts. More than that, he has a blue-collar quality. It's enhanced by his Pennsylvania roots -- great racehorses come from Pennsylvania about as often as great NFL quarterbacks come from France.

Said veteran horse trainer Cot Campbell of Aiken, S.C., whose horse Limehouse placed fourth in the Kentucky Derby behind Smarty Jones: "I'm a great admirer of Smarty Jones, and if he wins the Belmont it would be absolutely wonderful. The whole nation is interested in him. A win would strike an enormous blow for racing."

Smarty Jones will go off as the prohibitive favorite in the Belmont today, which is the longest of the three Triple Crown races at a grueling 11/2 miles. Some knowledgeable horsemen think Smarty Jones would have to fall down not to place first in the field of nine.

Secretariat's jockey, Ron Turcotte, rode perhaps the greatest horse in history to a legendary 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont. Turcotte has said recently that Smarty Jones is "25 lengths better than any other 3-year-old."

Campbell isn't so sure. He will attend the Belmont and believes Smarty Jones will win. He also thinks two horses could pose serious challenges -- Rock Hard Ten and Eddington.

As for Limehouse, his own prize 3-year-old, Campbell is no fool. Limehouse isn't entered in the Belmont.

"Ever since the Derby, we've pretty much decided to run Limehouse in places where Smarty Jones is not running," he said.

It's not a bad move to get out of Smarty Jones' way. The first Thoroughbred to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated in 21 years, Smarty Jones is what horsemen sometimes label a "push button" horse. He has shown the ability to use his stunning speed at any time in the race -- early, late or whenever the jockey wants it. Push the button, and he goes.

The jockey, Stewart Elliott, was a no-name in horse racing until a couple of months ago. Trainer John Servis is another off-brand. They are wrong-side-of-the-horse-barn people. That adds to a mystique furthered by the successful book and movie, "Seabiscuit," about a similar underdog horse that captured America's imagination 65 years ago.

More Smarty Jones lore: The horse suffered a major injury 11 months ago, rearing up and banging his head into an iron bar while practicing at the starting gate at Philadelphia Park.

Servis thought at that moment that Smarty Jones might have killed himself with the blow. Instead, the horse fractured his skull and almost lost his left eye. A close look today will still reveal the dents in Smarty Jones' skull.

Today will be the sixth time in eight years that the Triple Crown has been up for grabs at Belmont Park. Those past five horses have all lost, including War Emblem in 2002 and Funny Cide last year.

"What I wonder," Campbell said, "is what Smarty Jones will do with adversity. I don't think he's quite met it yet. He's had smooth trips in every race. Now he's certainly annihilated the field, time and again, but we haven't seen him bottled up or get bumped around. What happens then?"

We might find out today, when Smarty Jones goes for the Triple Crown and tries to give America what it needs.

I think he wins.

Scott Fowler
The Charlotte Observer
 
what a great thread....I love horses will be at the stakes later today...


I am about 15 mins from belmont....love when the races are back....
 
DLL said:
what a great thread....I love horses will be at the stakes later today...


I am about 15 mins from belmont....love when the races are back....
Click to expand...
I am very Envious DLL !!
 
Originally posted by CharlotteNCguy
I am very Envious DLL !!
Click to expand...


most of my circle of friends are trainers we attend the preakness as well as the stakes each year....Horses are my first love...
the sig line i use is on the entrance of the kentucky derby and i named my horse after a stakes winner of past...:heart:
 
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