Will Smarty Jones still be partying after Preakness?

No major championship in sports has a shorter shelf life than the Kentucky Derby. Win the Masters, as Phil Mickelson did in April, and you can dine out free in the green jacket every night for two months before golf’s next Grand Slam event.  Win the World Series, an NBA, NFL or NHL championship, and the party can last an entire offseason. Win Olympic gold and it’s a good three years before anyone even thinks to ask, “What have you done for me lately?” But win the Derby and the grace period lasts exactly two weeks. There’s barely time for even one good hangover, as Smarty Jones and his connections are finding out. “This is going to be the toughest race he has had,” said trainer John Servis.

Some people would argue he doesn’t know the half of it. On the other hand, being newcomers to the top echelon of racing and the unique demands of a Triple Crown might be the best thing Smarty Jones’ campaigners have going for them. Sweeping the sport’s three biggest races in five weeks is perhaps the toughest feat in sports. One measure of that is the 26 years that have elapsed since Affirmed last turned the trick, holding off Alydar in consecutive thrillers at the Derby, Preakness and Belmont. Secretariat managed to do the same just five years earlier, but that transcendent romp came after a 25-year drought, dating to Citation’s summer of ‘48. But time isn’t the only measure of difficulty. Once known as the “sport of kings,” racing has been off the throne for so long that the search for a superstar has turned into a parody of American Idol. 

Five times in the previous seven years, a horse left the Preakness with two wins under its belt and a shot at the Triple — only to be exposed by the marathon distance of the Belmont. Last year, the Triple Crown wannabe was a quirky gelding named Funny Cide, whose decidedly common pedigree and hoi polloi ownership group made for a great story. Their pursuit of the trifecta got an unexpected lift as author Laura Hillenbrand’s book Seabiscuit topped the best-seller list and headed for the silver screen. In retrospect, more attention was probably the last thing Funny Cide needed. A year ago, just moments after the gelding captured the Preakness, trainer Bob Baffert stood along the runway to the paddock and surveyed the gray sky above the Pimlico Race Course. Three times since 1997, he was in the same position as Funny Cide’s connections and he knew only too well what awaited them around the bend. 

“Your life is under glass, you open yourself up to every kind of second-guessing, your voice is shot, everything still has to go perfect for you to have a chance — and then you get beat by a nose,” he recalled. Which is exactly what happened to Real Quiet, the second of his three Triple Crown contenders. “That’s why I can’t wait to get home,” Baffert said, “and watch somebody else go through it on TV.”  The somebody else this time around is Servis, jockey Stewart Elliott and owners Ray and Pat Chapman. And to their credit, just like the Triple Crown rookies around Funny Cide, they haven’t big-timed anybody since their brush with fame. Elliott took just one day off after winning the Derby, reporting for duty the following Monday at Philadelphia Park, and climbing aboard the same cheap mounts he rode for most of his career. 

Servis, who like Elliott was largely unknown outside the confines of the ramshackle Philly venue, brought Smarty Jones back two days later amid all kinds of backslapping. “This is bigger than I ever imagined,” Servis said. “It has been crazy, but I’m having the best time of my life.” He and everybody connected to Smarty Jones certainly earned it. The shame is that the only way it continues is by winning today, and then again three weeks later in New York. Whether Smarty Jones senses the pressure is anyone’s guess. But the Preakness will be his fifth race in 11 weeks, and that wear and tear is only one of the obstacles the colt will have to overcome. 

He’ll have to beat four of the same horses he battled at Churchill Downs — now that fifth-place finisher The Cliff’s Edge was scratched yesterday because of injury — and five entries who took the gruelling Derby weekend off. On top of that, Servis doesn’t know if the weather will create the same sloppy conditions that Smarty Jones enjoyed in the Derby. What he does know is that he’s got the horse to beat. And even though Smarty Jones went off as the favourite at the Derby, the undersized chestnut will be carrying a lot more than the weight of a jockey this time out. “If we get through this,” he said,  “I think we’ll have a really good chance of the Triple Crown.”