Smarty Jones relocating to Pennsylvania

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Champion Smarty Jones, the popular 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, will return to his native state of Pennsylvania for the 2011 breeding season.

Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., ended months of speculation Tuesday by announcing that Smarty Jones will stand at Ghost Ridge Farms in York, Pa. Ghost Ridge has not yet announced a fee for the 9-year-old Elusive Quality horse, whose fee was $10,000 this year.

Pat Chapman, who bred Smarty Jones with her late husband Roy, and her family own half of the horse’s breeding rights.

“It was a difficult decision to move the horse from Three Chimneys, especially considering his progeny’s recent successes and Rogue Romance winning the Bourbon Stakes, a ‘Win and You’re In’ event for the Breeders’ Cup,” the Three Chimneys announcement said. “The decision ultimately came down to what was in the best interest of Smarty and his stallion career. Much of the breeding interest in Smarty Jones in recent years has come from the East Coast and, having hailed from Pennsylvania, the Chapman family is eager to bring him home.”

Three Chimneys will host an open house from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Nov. 3 to allow fans to “say farewell in person,” according to the announcement.

Smarty Jones, who stood his initial season for a $100,000 fee, currently ranks eighth among third-crop sires. In addition to Grade 3 winner Rogue Romance, he also is the sire of Grade 2 winner Backtalk, Grade 1-placed Be Smart, and other stakes performers.

A little less than a year after Smarty Jones’s birth at their Pennsylvania farm, the Chapmans’s longtime trainer Bob Camac and his wife were slain, an event that prompted the Chapmans to cut back their stable and breeding stock. One of the few horses they kept was Smarty Jones, who went to trainer John Servis. In summer 2003, Smarty Jones reared in a starting gate, fracturing his skull. The injury delayed his debut until November, when he won a maiden special weight at Philadelphia Park by 7 3/4 lengths. He did not lose again until the 2004 Belmont Stakes, when he finished second behind Birdstone. In nine lifetime starts, his eight victories and lone second-place gave him $7,613,155 in earnings, including a $5 million bonus from Oaklawn Park for sweeping Oaklawn’s Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby and the Kentucky Derby.