ELMONT, N.Y. - Smarty Jones is the first horse John Servis has ever run in a Triple Crown race. The pressure and demands of getting a horse to the Kentucky Derby, then seeing him through the next two legs of the Triple Crown, have unraveled trainers with far more experience in big races.

Yet throughout this spring, Servis has displayed the poise of someone quietly confident that his way is the right way. At every point where a critical decision needed to be made, Servis's path proved to be the correct one.

BENSALEM, Pa. - Stewart Elliott had already won more than 3,000 races before he climbed aboard the back of Smarty Jones for the first time last Nov. 9 at Philadelphia Park. Elliott, 39, couldn't have known it then, but his life would be changed forever.

"Where you've been hiding this one?" Elliott said to trainer John Servis while still atop Smarty Jones after his 7 3/4-length maiden win at Philadelphia Park on that November afternoon.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Pete Van Trump, the exercise rider of Smarty Jones, said the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was on the muscle during his 1 1/2-mile gallop early Thursday morning. Smarty Jones galloped alongside his stable pony, Butterscotch, ridden by trainer John Servis.

"He was actually pretty tough this morning,'' Van Trump said. "He's been galloping with a pony off and on, and today he was tough as nails. He put it together today where he was a little bit laid back the last couple of days at Philly.''

ELMONT, N.Y. - Owner Roy Chapman expressed just one goal to trainer John Servis when it came to Smarty Jones: Win the Kentucky Derby. For Billy Turner, the trainer of Seattle Slew 27 years ago, the expectations were never so modest.

FAIR HILL, Md. - There are 11 of them, forever linked by one denomination. In racing, there are millionaires, Hall of Famers, Eclipse Award winners, Breeders' Cup winners, Classic winners, and (pause) the immortal 11 who have won the Triple Crown.

Saturday, Smarty Jones tries to make it an even dozen.

It's batting .400 in baseball or never telling a lie - many have tried and few have succeeded.

On the eve of Smarty Jones's bid to become racing's 12th Triple Crown

winner and the first in 26 years, Daily Racing Form is pleased to present this commemorative section detailing both the ancient and recent history of the chase for Thoroughbred racing's most storied prize.

Lazaro Barrera, a man who loved being on stage, was once asked about the Triple Crown trophy awarded to Affirmed for winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes of 1978. Without missing a beat, the trainer unbuttoned his shirt and displayed the telltale scars of open heart surgery.

"Right there," said Barrera, tapping his chest. "I wear the trophy every day."

Before the Belmont Stakes this year, Patrice Wolfson will do as she did last year, when Funny Cide was aiming for Triple Crown immortality. Wolfson, who bred and owned 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed, will make three corsages. She will send one to Penny Chenery, owner and breeder of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat. She will send another one to Karen Taylor, who owned 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew - the only undefeated Triple Crown winner to date - with her husband and Jim and Sally Hill. And Patrice Wolfson will wear one herself.

BALTIMORE, May 15 - John Servis said he had purposely kept a tight rein on Smarty Jones in the two weeks leading up to Saturday's 129th Preakness Stakes because he wanted Smarty Jones to "beat somebody up." In a little less than two minutes here at Pimlico Race Course, Smarty Jones delivered a powerful knockout punch.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 1 - Cue the theme from "Rocky."

A new Philadelphia story unfolded Saturday at Churchill Downs. Smarty Jones, a Pennsylvania-bred who began his career at Philadelphia Park, is trained and ridden by horsemen based there, and is owned by a couple from nearby Bucks County, scored the richest prize in racing history when he captured the 130th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.