By Dick Jerardi
This week, 170 ballots will be sent to the Hall of Fame voting panel. For the first time, Smarty Jones will be among the 16 finalists – eight horses, seven trainers, one jockey. For the first time, I was a part of the 14-person nominating committee. To get to the final ballot, a horse or person needed at least nine votes from the committee.
Before we met by phone three weeks ago to discuss all the nominees, I sent some thoughts on Smarty Jones to my fellow members of the committee. They included the following on Smarty Jones:
First unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977.
Won the Preakness by the largest margin (11 1/2 lengths) in the history of the race.
Raced nine times from early November 2003 until early June 2004, without a break.
Had a four-race series of Beyer figures – Rebel, Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby, Preakness (112, 109, 107, 118) unmatched by any horse through Derby preps and Triple Crown races in the 21st century.
In 2004, Rock Hard Ten, Borrego, Eddington, Purge, and Imperialism raced against Smarty Jones a combined 12 times. They finished a combined 147 lengths behind him, an average of 12 lengths per race. Smarty Jones did not just win his races; the colt dominated them. And he was crushing some very accomplished horses. In 2005, The Smarty Five won six Grade I races and four Grade II races. Rock Hard Ten won the Strub, Santa Anita Handicap, and Goodwood. Borrego won the Pacific Classic and Jockey Club Gold Cup. Eddington won the Gulfstream Park Handicap and Pimlico Special.
Also in 2004, the winners of the Haskell, Jim Dandy and West Virginia Derby raced against Smarty Jones a combined six times and were beaten by a combined 78 lengths. Purge won all four of his races without Smarty Jones. In three tries against Smarty, Purge was a combined 47 lengths behind.
Won his eight races by a combined 47 1/2 lengths. The Belmont Stakes was his ninth race at nine different distances at six race tracks.
In his only loss, the Belmont Stakes, the colt was beaten by in-race circumstances much more than by winner Birdstone. In fact, it was somewhat similar to what happened to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah when he finished second in the 2015 Travers. Two horses were taken out of their normal running styles to try to get Smarty Jones beat. Those two, Eddington and Rock Hard Ten, were well beaten, but were a great aid in Birdstone’s victory.
It is worth noting that after his Travers loss, American Pharoah raced once more, winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a 120 Beyer Figure. When American Pharoah and Justify won the Belmont Stakes and their Triple Crowns, they were afforded easy uncontested leads. Smarty Jones was not given that horse racing luxury and, in fact, was under pressure much of the way in his Belmont. If Smarty Jones had gotten that same easy lead, he almost certainly would have won the race and likely would have long since been an easy choice for the committee to make a finalist.
There was justifiable criticism for how the retirement announcement was handled in the late summer of 2004. As the only writer who was there every morning in the weeks leading up to the Belmont Stakes and the weeks after the race, I can tell everyone on the committee: this was not the same horse after the race as before. Most days, he could not even get into a gallop. Something clearly was wrong. Turned out the colt had significant cartilage loss that was going to prevent him from training or running again. That, however, was not known until several months after the retirement announcement.
Popularity is not a HOF criteria, nor should it be, but it is notable that a record 120,000 fans were at Belmont Park that June day in 2004 to see Smarty Jones try for the Triple Crown.
Longevity obviously is an understandable issue for the committee. And nine races does not qualify as long no matter how you define it. But those nine races over seven months qualify as one of the most incredible runs by any horse in the modern history of the sport. Also, given that the committee voted to make Justify a finalist last year with just six races, has voted to make Rags to Riches a finalist with just seven races and given how few races most of the highest quality horses run in this era, it may be time to view longevity through a different lens.
On the call, I spoke in favor of Smarty making the final ballot. In addition to asking if there were any questions about what I had written to them, I also pointed out, as fellow committee member Steve Haskin told me, that Majestic Prince, with a career identical to Smarty Jones (unbeaten through the Preakness, second in the Belmont Stakes, never ran again after 10 career races), is in the Hall of Fame.
Now, it is up to the voters, Typically, 90+ percent of the ballots are returned. To get into the Hall of Fame, a finalist must receive 50 percent of the votes, plus one. So, for instance, if all 170 ballots were returned, Smarty would need 86 votes. If, say, 150 ballots were returned, Smarty would need 76 votes. The voting results will be announced April 24.
All many of us ever wanted was for Smarty Jones to get on the ballot and let a wide cross section of voters decide if the horse is worthy of induction. We now have that opportunity.
