"Plus I hated Smarty Jones. His name alone was not deserving of a Triple Crown."


^^^^ Best of show.





The music never dies.

Don't be a fool.

Okay, I understand that many of the people following horseracing has not witness a horse complete the triple crown. I was very fortunate to start following horseracing as a teenager in the 70's.

IMO, I saw all three triple crown winners raced. I have to excluded Spectacular Bid and Point Given from this point because they lost due to a bad ride in one leg of the triple crown. I really think the closet and very frankly the only other horses in the past 30 + who was in the same category as the 70's triple crown winner who could have won a triple crown if not for an injury was; A.P. Indy and Barbaro.

I am an east coast guy, but A.P. Indy was just on a different level. Some think Bernardini would've beat Barbaro in the Preakness. But to get past that 3rd hurdle of the triple crown....without a doubt A.P. and Barbaro had that determination you was not getting by them in the stretch.

Yes I think it would have been an injustice for several horses to win the triple crown....Charistmatic and War Emblem are the horses that comes to mind.

I watched the Belmont that year in the box section at Belmont. My friend was here from Paris (she grew up here and we went to the track together as kids) and she went with me. We walked through the tunnel and up the stairs and got jammed up in traffic. We were between the tunnel and the winner's circle in the walkway behind the 1st row of of boxes as they started to load the gate. My friend looked over and realized that Mary Lou Whitney and John Henrickson were about 10 feet from us. When Birdstone passed Smarty Jones, MaryLou looked at her husband if my lip reading is correct, said "What have we done?"
Other than once at a Springsteen show at the Meadowlands, I never heard 100,000 people shut up at the same time.

Why go silent at a boss show??

Oh and to answer the question? I was at home jumping up and down because I made a pretty hefty score on Birdstone. Not to mentioned I bet him pretty hard in the derby only to watch him get bounced around any did not handle the track that turn into a mess only 30 minutes to post.

It seems everybody on this forum bet Birdstone. Amazing. Everyone bet a 36/1 shot.

Slewbopper- It seems everybody on this forum bet Birdstone. Amazing. Everyone bet a 36/1 shot.


It was a reason he was 36-1, most people did bet him....

I would think betting against Smarty Jones in all prior races and the Belmont for this fact. Because I bet Smart Jones sire (Elusive Quaility) when he was a Bill Mott speed ball who broke a world record on a turf course that was hard as asphalt 4th of July weekend about 10 years ago! Can't see him winning at a mile and half.

I took a chance on a horse that I bet in the derby. Besides, if you bet Nick Zito horses in stake races. He will give you a clue in the final workout...either 5f in 1:00 or less or 4f in 48 seconds or less.

I call this the Nick Zito championship blow out. Go back on all of his graded earners...every last one had this workout!

The man trained under the great Woody Stephens who owned the Belmont Stakes in the 80's.

Btw that wasn't the biggest price horse I caught in a Belmont stakes...the IRS knows which one I hit.

Boss had walked off stage for a brief cleanup about 1 1/2 hrs into the show. He comes out with a wooden stool and his guitar over his shoulder. Everyone starts hollering. He sits down with guitar and "shushes" the crowd. Everyone shut up.

It is amazing isn't?:)

I had seats in the stands at the Preakness that year. When Smarty came down the stretch, even though I was screaming at the top of my lungs, I literally couldn't hear my own voice because the roar of the masses drowned it out. I never experienced such unbridled enthusiasm from a crowd.

So I went to the Belmont with a group of people from work, expecting the best. When Smarty got caught in the stretch, it was like the crowd received a collective punch in the gut. I never experienced such unbridled diappointment from a crowd.

A television news crew made their way towards me because, I guess, they saw that I was wearing a Smarty cap (which I had gotten when I went to Philly Park, after standing in line for a couple of hours, just to watch Smarty work) and they figured it would make good theater.

I think that if the reporter had gotten to me right away, in the moments directly after the loss, I would have, at the least, exhausted in seven seconds George Carlin's list of seven words you can't say on television. However, my boss kind of interposed himself, so the reporter turned to him for a few seconds, allowing me to compose myself. When the reporter got to me, I made some pithy comment that, being from Philly, I was used to disappointment in sports (this was before the Phils' world series win, and at a time when the Philly teams always seemed to fall just short) and that we'd just have to look forward to a Triple Crown winner from the Philadelphia area next year. It was hokey, I know, but when the report was on the news that night, they ended it with my segment. I figure I've still got fourteen minutes of fame due.

Smarmy Clone on the other hand...

At Belmont Park, in the backyard.

The cruel irony of it for me was before Smarty Jones came along in November of '03, Birdstone was my '04 Derby horse.

There is so much wrong with this post...but the double longshot redboard in your 20th post has to supercede that Nick didn't work for Woody.

Gee thanks for quoting that drivel, Andy. Now I can't get this image out of my mind...

me too, i was here at the simulcast. alot of us had birdstone, he was the mary lou local fave. plus, he was good before the belmont. i had pics with smarty and birdstone......they were selling t-shirts, pins, bumper stickers and most of the people there,were not horse players. they thought it was a lock and right before post thats what made me know he was going to lose. big brown was the same thing but i had to hit the "all" button to get that one. rooting for those kind of horses is one thing....betting them is another.....counting on them winning and then betting them...... well.....i can say...its horse racing.....gambling .....sucka. you never make a score betting that way. but i love how people think they can anyway.

why in the heck would anyone want War Emblem to get a TC?

I was wondering about that, but thought I would leave it to someone else to respond. Sandy Bruno and David Donk are the two I remember being assistants to the Butcher. And of course when he was lying in his hospital bed dying of emphazema, he took credit for his proteges' wins

Was at Kentucky Downs watching. The whole place was nuts and you couldn't hear the person next to you during the race. When they start flashing the splits, I'm screaming "too fast" at my friend...it went dead silent as soon as they hit the wire.