Perfection remains part of game for Smarty Jones

Ralph Siraco

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

Horse racing found its sequel to Seabiscuit on Saturday in Louisville. Take note, Hollywood. It's Smarty Jones.

On a day built for ducks in a town rebuilding its legendary racetrack, the Kentucky Derby's outcome became eminently clear to all the pundits who were as clouded as the weather right up until post time. Although Mother Nature rained on the parade of some Derby runners, it was the betting public and not the expert handicappers who had this Kentucky Derby right from the start.

After all the projections of a wide-open race, the 130th Kentucky Derby was won by the favorite. Not only at the betting windows, but in the hearts of most who witnessed the Run for the Roses as well. And it was as simple as basic logic. The winner was the one who had won the most races, likes to win races and was undefeated in running his races.

Smarty Jones came into Saturday's Derby looking to run up the score to seven wins in seven lifetime starts. He not only left with that lucky seven, but banked the richest payday in racing history in the process.

And what a Hollywood story it is.

Take a retired auto dealer with a loyal wife named Pat. Now, this auto dealer starts dabbling in the horse racing business as a horse owner in the mid-1980s. He resides in the Quaker state of Pennsylvania and sets up shop with a spread appropriately named Someday Farm. Next, Roy Chapman selects his trainer, a circuit steady named Bobby Camac. Chapman and Camac grind out a living at bush-league Philadelphia Park in the city of brotherly love.

Fast forward to early 2001. At 74, Chapman's health is deteriorating -- he has emphysema and needs an oxygen tank to breathe. On Feb. 28, a colt is born on the farm that will eventually change their lives. This son of the owner's most successful runner -- a mare named I'll Get Along -- is named after Roy's mom Mildred, whose nickname was Smarty. Hence, Smarty Jones.

Nine months later, Camac and his wife are murdered by Camac's stepson. The Chapmans are devastated. So much so, they disperse their thoroughbred holdings and sell the farm. They elect to keep just two horses. Just two. And one is Smarty Jones. Simply because the Chapmans like the way he looks -- in his eyes.

Smarty (the horse) goes to a Philly Park circuit trainer named John Servis. On a July morning while "schooling" the gray son of Elusive Quality, Servis watches in horror as Smarty Jones smashes his head against a crossbar in the starting gate stall, knocking himself out cold and suffering a fractured skull. Servis starts a long process of nursing his trainee back to health (sound familiar, Seabiscuit?).

Then it is Nov. 9, 2003, a nondescript maiden race at Philadelphia Park. Smarty Jones has had workouts encouraging enough to attract leading jockey Stewart Elliott and goes off as the favorite. He wins his debut by almost eight lengths. Next, Smarty wins a state-bred stakes by 15 lengths and punches his ticket to the big time. On Jan. 3, Smarty wins the Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct in New York by five lengths.

Servis and Elliott then realize Smarty may be the one. So do others. Chapman turns down a "blank check" offer to sell his runner and the Philly team ships to Hot Springs, Ark., where the story enters the homestretch ...

Oaklawn Park was celebrating its 100th racing season and track owner Charles Cella offered a $5 million bonus to any horse that could win Oaklawn's trio of Derby prep races and the Kentucky Derby. In the closest finish of his career, Smarty Jones won the first one by less than a length. With the Southwest Stakes under his sophomore girth, Smarty took the Rebel Stakes by daylight. Then, by early April, Smarty was 5-for-5 lifetime, but wasn't on the Kentucky Derby radar screen because he had no graded earnings. With more hopefuls than starting gate spots, the Kentucky Derby's priority criteria is graded earnings.

Smarty Jones needed to win the Arkansas Derby to gain enough graded earnings to make the Run for the Roses. A win in the Arkansas Derby also would put Smarty Jones on target to take the bonus with a Kentucky Derby win. Smarty sailed by the pacesetter in the mud at Oaklawn Park on April 10 and rolled into Kentucky a Derby starter.

Leading up to Saturday's feature race at Churchill Downs, Chapman again turned down seven-figure offers for his perfect homebred. Servis and Elliott tutored Smarty Jones to a bullet drill in his final workout for the big race.

Then, May 1 at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky. Just about an hour before the Derby, the skies opened over the famed twin spires. At 6:14 p.m. Eastern, Smarty Jones broke from post 15 and went on to enjoy a flawless ride by Elliott. Smarty Jones stalked pacesetter Lion Heart and rolled by him to win the Kentucky Derby for the latest chapter in this incredible story.

The post-race scene showed the Chapmans -- with Roy in his wheelchair -- trainer Servis and jockey Elliott on the podium with the Kentucky bluebloods as they accepted the trophy, the Derby winner's share of $854,800 and a $5 million check from Oaklawn Park in their first Derby experience for the biggest payday in American racing history.

Smarty Jones became the first undefeated horse to take the Kentucky Derby since Seattle Slew did it in 1977. Slew went on to win the Triple Crown. With the benchmark bonus, Smarty Jones' $6,733,155 in earnings currently places him sixth on the sport's all-time money list. Servis and Elliott -- who has won more than 3,200 races in his career -- became the first jockey-trainer team to win the Derby in their first try since Buddy Delp and Ronnie Franklin turned the trick with Spectacular Bid in 1979.

Smarty Jones also outran his breeding. But then, this new rags-to-riches team of dreams has been bucking all conventional trends.

Now, it's on to Pimlico for the second jewel of the Triple Crown to see if the final scene will be set in Baltimore at the Preakness Stakes or in the Big Apple at Belmont Park for a blockbuster finale in June.