Smarty Jones may relocate to Pennsylvania

Smarty Jones might head back to his home state of Pennsylvania, if his breeder and co-owner, Pat Chapman, can put together a deal to relocate him from Kentucky.

“I want him in Pennsylvania,” she told the Philadelphia Daily News in an Aug. 26 story.

Chapman and her family own half of the 60 shares in Smarty Jones, who won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes before being named the year’s champion 3-year-old colt. She and her late husband, Roy, sold Smarty Jones’s breeding rights that year in a deal reportedly worth about $40 million, syndicating him for stud duty at Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky. An Elusive Quality horse, Smarty Jones stood for $100,000 in his first year at stud in 2005, but as a third-crop sire he currently stands for $10,000.

Twenty other shareholders collectively own 30 shares in Smarty Jones, and Chapman must get the syndicate’s approval before the horse could move.

“There has been interest from more than one farm in Pennsylvania,” said the president of Three Chimneys, Case Clay. “However, there has been no firm, formal, written offer that we’re prepared to take to the syndicate.”

It’s unlikely that Smarty Jones would relocate unless a farm or group bought into him. As Chapman told the Daily News, to move Smarty Jones, she’ll need to find “the right partners, work out some financial things.”

Chapman also said there have been inquiries from Japan but that she won’t allow Smarty Jones to leave the country.

Smarty Jones currently ranks sixth among third-crop sires nationwide with more than $5.6 million in progeny earnings. His leading North American earner is Backtalk, a Grade 2 winner with $334,156 to his credit, and he is also the sire of 2008’s Grade 1-placed runner Be Smart.