ELMONT, N.Y. - Some behavioral scientists define clinical insanity as repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting the result to change. By this standard, every single person taking a position on the 136th Belmont Stakes, whether he's for or against Smarty Jones, is completely nuts.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Pete Van Trump, the rock-hard exercise rider who deals daily with Smarty Jones, called the meeting to order Thursday morning at Belmont's Barn 5 by downing a can of caffeine-rich Red Bull and ripping it in half. The message was clear. Van Trump was ready to rumble, and so was his horse.
ELMONT, N.Y. - In order to run in the Belmont Stakes, and thus take their places in history as winners of the Triple Crown, such heroes as Secretariat, Affirmed, and Seattle Slew were required merely to go out and play hard in their own backyard. They already lived here, at Belmont Park, and by Wednesday of Belmont week their earlier business trips to Louisville and Baltimore had become distant memories. They were home, surrounded by familiar smells, sleeping in their own beds.
ELMONT, N.Y. - John Servis wasn't so sure, but Jason Servis thought it made perfect sense, and Eddie Plesa figured it was only fair, the three of them being family and all.
The three training brothers - Plesa by marriage to Laurie Servis - each won a race on the afternoon of May 15. At around 3 o'clock, Plesa knocked off a $28,000 maiden race at Calder. A couple hours later, it was Jason's turn in a $44,000 allowance race at Belmont Park. Then, at 6:25 p.m., John Servis won the $1 million Preakness at Pimlico with you-know-who.
TUCSON, Ariz. - This is not about a kid from Philadelphia named Jones.
It is about a man in Albany named Pataki.
Regardless of what glorious things the Jones kid accomplishes this Saturday, once the cheers and furor of the Triple Crown die down, George Pataki, the governor of New York, plans the Herculean task of cleaning out his state's Aegean stables, the accumulated sludge of duplicative administration that has plagued New York racing.
He will do it by diverting the river of centralization right through the whole mess.
NEW YORK - If Smarty Jones wins the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown on Saturday, is the story over, or is it reasonable and realistic to hope for him to do even more?
Recently minted racing fans may assume it is standard operating procedure for a horse to disappear into husbandry or obscurity after bidding for the sport's gaudiest achievement. The last three horses in Smarty's position - Charismatic, War Emblem, and Funny Cide - have to date subsequently combined to win a total of one Grade 1 stakes race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Were it not for Smarty Jones and that Triple Crown deal he's got going on June 5 in the Belmont Stakes, this wayward reporter might have been found in the northern Nevada town of Winnemucca, hip deep in a three-day festival dedicated to the finest racing mules in the land.
NEW YORK - One of the great things about a juggernaut story such as Smarty Jones's impending bid for the Triple Crown is the way that it brings out the very best in our political and religious institutions.
On the secular front, the Philadelphia Daily News reports that the White House has asked for a photo opportunity between Smarty Jones and President George W. Bush. Team Smarty quite properly declined the invitation to van the colt to the Rose Garden.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - We will find out on Monday what it's like to run the Shoemaker Mile without Bill Shoemaker.
The race was christened in 1990, shortly after Shoemaker retired from his 42-year career as a rider. Each year, to the delight of the Hollywood Park crowd, the man himself could be found in the winner's circle waiting to greet the champion, although he did miss the 1991 running when he was otherwise occupied in rehabilitation and recovery from the car wreck that left him a quadriplegic.