By Dick Jerardi
It was, naturally, a perfectly glorious first morning of August, the sky above Saratoga Springs, New York a radiant blue, the line to get into the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion on East Ave. having begun to form at 7:30 a.m. two hours before the doors were scheduled to open, the 2025 Hall of Fame ceremony to celebrate horse racing’s newest inductees so anticipated for the 100 days since the announcement of the year’s honorees.
The star of the show, 24 now, was 300 miles away in Annville, Pennsylvania, but this morning, this ceremony, 21 years and two months since his final race, was always going to be about Smarty Jones, his talent, his will, his impact on the sport.
Nine races over seven months at six tracks over nine distances, eight wins, seven stakes, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the agonizing second in the Belmont, the lifetime fans made, the home race track’s future ensured, the total impact immeasurable, that was Smarty Jones.
On the 75th anniversary of the Hall of Fame, which is located just a few furlongs from the Pavilion, 28 Hall of Fame jockeys and trainers were in the lower seats nearer the stage. The Smarty Jones fans filled the balcony. And, in the front rows, awaiting their time as the last of the day to be honored, were owner/breeder Pat Chapman, trainer John Servis, jockey Stewart Elliott and their families, getting to celebrate a forever moment that served as the perfect ending they were denied on the track by circumstance.
Pat, John and Stewart were allotted 10 minutes. They only needed nine, one for each of Smarty’s races.
“It’s unbelievable to be standing here today as the breeder and owner of Smarty Jones,” Pat told the audience and those watching via stream.
“To be here,” she said, “is an honor beyond anything I could have ever, ever have imagined. It’s amazing. I’m so sorry Chappy (her husband Roy Chapman who died in 2006) is not here to enjoy this with us. He would be loving and cherishing every minute of it. But he’s here in my heart. He’s always here in my heart.”
Pat spoke from the heart about how she and her husband were brought together because of their common battles with addictions and how recovery is possible. She is proof positive of exactly that.
Servis said he spent some serious time on his speech. It showed.
“As his trainer, I had the privilege of witnessing first hand the heart, determination and sheer brilliance of this remarkable horse,” Servis said. “Smarty Jones wasn’t just a champion, he was a horse who captured the imagination of racing fans everywhere…His grit in the stretch, his unrelenting will to win and his undeniable charisma make him unforgettable, but beyond his talent, Smarty Jones had something even more special, he had a connection with people. He wasn’t just a race horse, he was a hero.”
If you were there in 2004, you know it’s true. And it remains true today.
“His legacy isn’t just in trophies and records, it’s in the hearts he touched and the dreams he inspired. Smarty, you were once in a lifetime, welcome to the Hall of Fame,” Servis concluded.
Elliott has always been a man of few words, but his few words hit exactly the right note.
“I am so grateful and happy that finally Smarty Jones was elected into the Hall of Fame,” Elliott said. “He was definitely the best horse that year and he deserves never to be forgotten. Many people know Smarty, but I am fortunate and lucky enough to say that I was the only one on his back and felt how determined he was, how much heart he had and how much he loved to run.”
After the ceremony, just about everybody from what felt like Parx North lingered outside the Pavilion, first post nearing at the track across Union Ave., the annual yearling sale three days away in the Pavilion, not really wanting the moment to end, somehow wanting to relive those 209 days from first race to last race and all the years since.
“It’s been surreal,” PTHA executive director Jeff Matty said. “I was 13-years-old (in 2004). I remember watching every single Triple Crown race with my family. Now, I get to make a career out of this industry because of Smarty so just a full-circle event.”
It was more than two decades in the making, but that the day happened will be a lasting memory.
“It was pretty emotional,” said PTHA president Bob Hutt who really spearheaded the effort a year ago to get Smarty into the Hall. “I had a wet eye…It was so overdue and this was just so tremendous”
Rodney Eckenrode’s Equistar Farm has been Smarty’s home for nearly seven years now. It is something Eckenrode never takes for granted.
“Smarty’s 24 and I don’t even want to think about a day that he won’t be here,” Eckenrode said. “He’s the first one to talk to me in the morning and the last one to say good night.”
Elliott’s split-second decision on the first turn of the Derby to get Smarty out of traffic and into the race set up all the magic.
“He wasn’t a big horse, but he had a big heart and he stayed in there for me,” Elliott remembered. “That part of the race was everything. It was win or lose right there.”
Pat Chapman, who was one of the last people to leave the Pavilion, always had doubts about whether this day would ever come.
“I’m so glad I lived to see this day,” she said. “This is a little bit of vindication for Smarty because he did not quite win the Triple Crown. But the Hall of Fame, that’s the crown.”
As his jockey said, that horse really did love to run. Smarty still loves to run around his paddock at Equistar where he is still breeding and will live out the rest of his life.
And now, immortalized in the Hall of Fame for all time with the sport’s other legends like Secretariat and Man o’ War, there is no chance Smarty Jones will ever be forgotten.
