BENSALEM, Pa. -- Undefeated and wildly popular, Smarty Jones was the Big Brown of his day - the last horse before Big Brown to enter the Belmont Stakes with a shot at horse racing's Triple Crown.
Four years later, John Servis, who trained Smarty Jones, is still attached to that chestnut colt and those fleeting weeks when Smarty was anointed racing's next star. Servis, who collects Smarty memorabilia and visits the retired horse each year, knows better than anyone that the risk of aspiring to greatness is that you might fall tantalizingly short.
Because Triple Crown races are for 3-year-olds only, a horse can enter just once. But their trainers relive the races a thousand times.
In 2004, Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but faded at the Belmont, losing to a 36-1 long shot. Servis says he'll be watching the Belmont on television Saturday and believes Big Brown, if healthy, will achieve what Smarty could not.
Like Smarty Jones - who nearly lost an eye in 2003 after rearing in the starting gate and smacking his head - Servis is feisty and competitive. The trainer, 49, still becomes animated when discussing how and why he believes Smarty finished second in the Belmont.
Servis says other riders, including Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who rode Eddington, pressed Smarty early, denying him an easy stride. Servis says he told Bailey in a phone conversation a week after the race that he had never seen the jockey use his whip so early.
" `I'm sorry you feel that way,' " Servis says he recalls Bailey saying. Bailey says he doesn't remember the conversation.
Servis says he wonders whether Bailey was trying to win or simply trying to unsettle Smarty. Eddington finished fourth, and Smarty, tired at the end, was passed by victorious long shot Birdstone.
"I guess unethical is not the right word," Servis says. "Do I blame Jerry Bailey for losing the Triple Crown? No. Did he have something to do with it? Yes."
Bailey says he recently reviewed the race to prepare for his role as a television analyst during this year's Belmont.
"Smarty Jones moved on his own or at the encouragement of Stewart [Elliott, his jockey] - that's what got him beat," Bailey says. "Granted, if no one challenges him, he would have had an easier time of it. Even though he was challenged by Eddington and Rock Hard Ten, he still had it within his discretion and power to wait longer before he made his move."
