Smarty Jones is the Next Secretariat

[Silver Charm]

Yes its True.

While it may be difficult for some to understand, Secretariat raced a generation ago and is nothing more than a story in a history book to alot of people. For those of us who were lucky enough to see Big Red, we can truly appreciate how good he was. But all of you others who are just like me I have a question??

Tell me how do you know how good Man o\'War was.

You can only go by what you read or heard.

The thing with Secretariat was there was a large build-up from the end of his two year-old season and on through the Triple Crown. The suspense was building everyday and Big Red delivered, in the Belmont did he ever. People traveled to see him at Claiborne Farm and still to this day visit his grave. Take a fifteen year-old young man there and he will probably have a difficult time appreciating what he is looking at. Poppa won\'t.

If Smarty Jones wins the Belmont in fine fashion there will be NEW RACING FANS who will say \"Smarty Jones was the Best Horse I Ever Saw.\"

They will probably be telling the truth.

[Bham41]

There is a Funny Cide to every story.  Would Funny Cide have taken the triple crown if he hadn\'t stumbled coming out of the gate.  And even despite that setback didn\'t he make it back to 1st only to break when the whip was used.    FUNNY CIDE was a much better dark horse than Smarty.   THE hype is better but they aren\'t hyping the horse they are hyping the bucks associated with the Total Package.   Not the Mention SANTOS was HOT HOT HOT winning all day long at the Belmont.

[Silver Charm]

Hard to tell if you are talking War Emblem or Funny Cide.

In any event Smarty has one quality War Emblem didn\'t have, the ability to rate and kick. As far as both of those horses go Smarty was faster at two, is faster and three, and most important of all:

HE HAS NEVER LOST.

Not even Secretariat or Man o\'War could claim that.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

He\'ll get beat sometime and it might be Belmont Day, but I\'m a sucker and I\'ll be betting him in Tris and Supers again. He\'s been good to me, He can\'t race enough to lose what he\'s already won for me.

[gaz]

face it,this horse/freak is running lights
out and in his own zone, with no competition.

lion hearted already has shown the wear
and tear of battle attempting to compete
with s.j. on  the early and mid parts of the
derby and preakness and the balance of
opposition simply can\'t close on a horse,who,in his last race was not
being urged in the stretch and missing
the track \"record\" by @ 2 seconds.

superlatives aside, this unbeaten horse at different tracks,distances,surfaces,has
done nothing wrong,and/or everything
right,which can not be stated for any of his
competition.
this romantic tale ,will, god bless this team,be proven once again on june 5th

[Mall]

I see where Ron Turcotte is predicting that Smarty will win the Bel \"by at least 25 lengths\" & is also saying that Stevens\' comparison to Secretariat makes sense. I also see that Servis is saying that he fully expects Smarty to take another step forward in the race. Even if they are both right, Little Red can never replace Big Red as far as I\'m concerned.

Thirty plus yrs later, I still have a high definition mental image of most of what happened on the days he won the Preak & Bel. But I also know a little bit about how such memories are formed, & have no doubt that mine are influenced by the fact that I would have been an enthusiastic participant if there had been organized cheering similar to what I saw Sat. Odds,overlays, weights,distances,track bias,speed figures,pace scenario,post position,etc. When it came to Big Red, none of it mattered, sort of like the young guy in line after the last race. He was wearing a Smarty hat & shirt, & sheepishly showed me a $200 win ticket, saying that he wished he had had enough courage to parlay all of his derby winnings, as if not doing so might be a sign that he did not have complete & unqualified faith in his hero. If Smarty crushes the competition on 6/5, & 30 yrs from now that fan or someone like him takes the position that Smarty was the greatest horse to ever race, who\'s to say, with certainty, that he\'s wrong?

[miff]

Note for JB. Is there anyway for you to make a number for SEC\'S Belmont\'s win from the archieve info.Just curious.

[TGJB]

No. And furthermore, it would have been next to impossible doing it then-- probably the only 2 turn race on the day, 5 or 6 horse field, one of them breaks down early, all but 1 don\'t fire. It is worth keeping in mind that they were running over a MUCH faster track than now-- more clay, less sand, 3 inch cushion (4 now), and it was extremely fast that week in 73-- a number of track records were set or tied that meet. I wouldn\'t know how to begin to assess that figure, especially now.

No one in that Belmont other than Secretariat ever won another race of any kind, not even a claimer.

[Silver Charm]

There have been a lot of good posts today and I don\'t mean to push some down at the benefit of another string.

Chuckles all you needed to see was Smartys dad Elusive Quality ship down from Payson Park to Gulfstream Park for trainer Billy Mott and run 7 furlongs in the Gulfstream Park Hdcp. The Track Record may still stand and I swear to-you-know-who Pat Day never moved a muscle the entire trip, that was run in about 1:20 flat. He was a freak, not very sound, but when right A FREAK.

The reason I brought this string back up was that I felt that the Post by Mall was too damn good to go away.

I got chills down my spine on Belmont Day when I heard track announcer Chick Hearn bark: \" Secretariat is moving like a tremendous machine.\"

Mall I have read your post three times now and I got those same chills each and every time.

Truely a Great Post from a Great Horse Racing Fan.

[charleym]

I believe you mean Chick Anderson, Silver Charm.

[thomas]

For what its worth the guys in the black hats posted Secretariat\'s sheet on their website a few years ago. I didn\'t download it to file but did save a printout. His Belmont number was a '0' with either a small '2' or '3' next to the zero. It\'s a little fuzzy with the aged sheet and old scribbling. What I found interesting was the same \'0-2\'or\'0-3\' was also assigned to both the Derby & The Arlington Invitational run just three weeks after The Belmont. His Preakness was a \'3\' something,again a bit fuzzy.I assume Ragozin was the only one in their house doing the numbers in those days and since the torch has since been handed off to others it might be dangerous to try & compare a Ragozin 1973 sheet with a 2004 version let alone TG. If you\'re tempted to project an approximate TG rating for Secretariat, JB\'s scale seems to run around 3 points or so faster then theirs but as he has often stated he splits his 1 turn & 2 turn variants and they don't so we're back to apples & oranges again which brings up a question for JB. If there is a 'marginal' difference in your 1 and 2 turn variants whatever your definition of 'marginal' might be will you still insist on using 2 variants to make that fine distinction or can you satisfy yourself  the difference is insignificant enough that you'll tie all the races together with a common variant?

[miff]

Thomas,that\'s a very nice post. Iv\'e always felt that BIG RED\'S performance in the belmont was the fastest race I have ever seen and I still think so, notwithstanding the fast surface that day.I\'ve also heard and looked at the 2-3 point variation between TG and Rags but don\'t take that to the bank, there have been occasions where the spread is much wider,but not on big races.

[MO]

Smarty and Seretariat do have one thing in common, and it was alluded to earlier, that being they both had a bunch of garbage cans to beat. Still, they both ran real fast doing it. And that\'s what is most impressive.

[TGJB]

Re 1 and 2 turn variants-- I\'m running to catch a plane, but the short answer is I never tie the two together.

[derby1592]

MO,

I respect your opinion but I have to disagree if you are saying that Sham was a \"garbage can.\" He was certainly one of the best horses never to win a triple crown race running the second fastest derby ever when finishing second to Secretariat and then a very game second in the Preakness. He just happened to be chasing the best at his best. In the Belmont he finally cracked under the pressure of the big red machine but not until he had battled through blazing early fractions to help push Secretariat into a record-smashing performance and into the history books.

If Sham had come along in any other year, he might have won the Triple Crown...

Chris

P.S. IMO Rock Hard Ten does not look like a \"garbage can\" either.