The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame welcomed its newest member yesterday. Smarty Jones. The Pennsylvania wunderkind. Moments like this make you wade into the archives, all the way back to his Triple Crown run. Twenty-years ago.
The Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred.
Trainer John Servis gave Stewart Elliott a leg up on Smarty Jones for the Belmont Stakes on June 5—the race that could clinch the 12th Triple Crown—and smiled.
”Stew, have a good trip,” Servis said.
And then the 45-year-old trainer put his arm around a friend.
“Like Cy Young said, ‘The ball has left my hand,’ ” Servis said as he walked toward the grandstand. But not before his oldest son, Blane, persuaded him to touch the Secretariat statue in the middle of the paddock for luck. Servis scoffed for a moment, then turned around (it was no time to cross black cats) and touched Big Red’s hock.
Servis then walked to see if it was time to make history. To see if the sport would have its first Triple Crown winner after an agonizing wait since Affirmed in 1978. To see if the small-time horse from Pennsylvania could remain unbeaten and earn a $5 million bonus from Visa. To see if everything was right in the world.
The ball that had sailed straight and true for five incredible weeks made it to the lip of the catcher’s glove—where it stopped. Plain stopped.
The ride was over.
Read the rest of the feature on Page 17 of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred.
