SMARTY COULD REKINDLE RACING ROMANCE.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI ELMONT, N.Y. - How is it supposed to feel? I mean, if Smarty Jones Smarty Jones (born February 28, 2001) is a thoroughbred race horse, and winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. He is a third-generation descendant of Mr. wins the Belmont Stakes Belmont Stakes Oldest of the three U.S. horse races that constitute the Triple Crown. The Belmont originated in 1867 and is named after August Belmont (see Belmont family). The stakes is held in early June at Belmont Park, near Garden City, Long Island; the course is 1.5 mi (2,400 m). today and completes the Triple Crown, an event we've been told would ''transform'' the horse-racing industry. Will the heart flutter, the head spin, the cheeks flush? Most Americans are too young to remember the impact - emotional and economic - of a 3-year-old thoroughbred exerting such dominance over his classmates Classmates can refer to either:
Will birds break into song, will the sun come out at night, will the sick rise? So much has changed in the 26 years since Affirmed won the Triple Crown, a commonplace in the 1970s. How will ''Did you see that horse?'' sound over a cell-phone connection? How will the news sound coming from Stuart Scott Stuart O. Scott (born July 19, 1965) is an American sportscaster for ESPN, most visibly as an anchor on SportsCenter. Scott was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Richard J. instead of Haywood Hale Broun? How will that souvenir $2 win ticket bought from an online betting exchange A betting exchange is a peer-to-peer gambling website acting as a broker between parties for the placement of bets. The concept is similar to that of a stock exchange or a futures exchange, where in this case the commodity being traded is a bet, rather than a stock or futures look coming out of a computer printer? The magnitude of a sports event is measured in new and wonderful ways now. This week, national interest in Smarty Jones is reflected in the astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, fact that Friday on eBay, a pair of $2 parimutuel win tickets on the colt in the Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. were auctioned off for $184.95 each. The tickets would be worth $10.20 apiece if cashed at a betting window. In Southern California, meanwhile, Hollywood Park will try to tap into Smarty An earlier device marketed by Fischer International Systems Corporation, Naples, FL (www.fisc.com) that used a standard 3.5" floppy drive to read smart cards. The smart card was inserted into Smarty, which resembled a floppy disk. Jones' popularity by giving away $2 Belmont Stakes win tickets on the horse to the first 10,000 fans through the turnstiles today. The tickets might be cashed or kept as souvenirs if he wins. ''I hope people fall in love with this horse,'' said John Servis, Smarty Jones' trainer, who has helped produce publicity for the colt's historic bid with his good-humored cooperation with reporters. ''Maybe they'll fall in love with the sport. If 10 percent do, that's more than we had.'' As a vehicle for racetrack marketing, Smarty Jones benefits from the truth-stranger-than-fiction stories of his early days (marked by a skull fracture skull fracture, n a rupture or break in the cranial bones. skull fracture Orthopedics A fracture of one or more cranial bones, caused by MVAs, falls, assault, sports, occupational accidents and other forms of blunt trauma suffered in training), the tragedies of owners Roy and Patricia Chapman (who lost breeding advisor Bob Camac in a murder), the late bloom late bloom said of mature plants at the stage where the flowers have fallen off. of jockey Stewart Elliott (a 39-year-old Triple Crown rookie) and the fanaticism Fanaticism See also Extremism. Adamites various sects preaching a return to life before the fall. [Christian Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 8] assassins Moslem murder teams used hashish as stimulus (11th and 12th centuries). of sports fans at his Philadelphia home base. Smarty Jones also benefits from that name, which makes up in catchy what it lacks in the elegance of Assault, Citation or Secretariat. And Smarty Jones benefits from being a point of light in dark times. ``There's so many bad things going on in the world,'' Servis said on the last full day before Smarty Jones' date with destiny. ''People get up in the morning and get tired of looking at the bad things on the front page. They get to the point where they just skip straight to the sports page. Now they get to read about a little red horse that's doing good.'' Racing fans hoped just as hard - but with less justified optimism - that Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem and Funny Cide would complete Triple Crown sweeps in the past seven years. It turns out those horses' Belmont failures might have been blessings in disguise. They built public fascination and understanding for the Triple Crown. Some of those horses were underwhelming un·der·whelm tr.v. un·der·whelmed, un·der·whelm·ing, un·der·whelms To fail to excite, stimulate, or impress: candidates to be the industry's poster boy. The undefeated Smarty Jones can make the gratification worth the delay. Television ratings for the Triple Crown-bid Belmonts have gone steadily up, from 5.3 percent of households for Silver Charm in 1997 to 9.5 for Funny Cide last year. Belmont Stakes-day attendance here has gone the same way, from 70,682 for Silver Charm to 103,222 for War Emblem and 101,864 in the rain for Funny Cide, the past seven years producing five of the track's eight largest crowds ever. Triple Crown bids might be horse racing's only growth sector anymore. But the guess here is that a Triple Crown will swell the sport's spirit more than its stock prices. At a time when much of the romance has gone out of the game, when its rulers seem to derive all of their optimism from slot-machine legislation, and when we've wondered if American breeders would ever produce a horse with the stamina and durability of the great ones - it does the heart good to see Smarty Jones recreate the glory days. Of course, nobody who is drawn to the local racetrack by Smarty Jones should expect to see something like this every day, or even every decade. But that's why this is something special, or would be. How good would it feel, anyway? CAPTION(S): 5 photos, box Photo: (1) WAR ADMIRAL, 1937 (2) WHIRLAWAY, 1941 (3) CITATION, 1948 (4) SECRETARIAT, 1973 (5) AFFIRMED, 1978 Photos by Associated Press Box: TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS Capsules by Kevin Modesti |
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