Horsey All Decade Team

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by miraja2

I'm shocked that it took four pages to get around to discussing DrugS's decision to rank Smarty number one among 3yo males. If Serling was still around here, it would have only taken four seconds.

Point Given would be #1 for me.

The 3-year-old male group was really close to impossible to do.

Anyone of seven or eight have great cases ... and that doesn't include Barbaro.

Curlin - a 2-time Horse of the Year - was a horse that I was surprised didn't make it. I had him 5th .. and if anyone put him 1st I wouldn't argue much.

I think everyone has a built in bias that favors the 2nd half of the year in each division ... and they rightly should. However, the 3yo male division is the one division where I think as much or more emphasis should be placed on the first half of the season as it is the second half.

No one was any more against Smarty Jones in the Triple Crown series than I was .. I badly underestimated his ability to get a distance! And few horses ever had fans as annoying as Smarty Jones fans.

Smarty Jones won a very rapid Rebel Stakes over Purge. Purge totally blew out fields in fast wins in the Peter Pan, Jim Dandy, and Cigar Mile.

Smarty Jones won a very fast Ark Derby over Borrego.

Smarty Jones toyed with a solid enough field in the Kentucky Derby. If you want to say the wet track helped speed ... in that case it helped a very solid horse in Lion Heart a lot more. How much did the wet track in this years Derby help speed?

Smarty Jones Preakness win was a mind boggling performance. 118 Beyer .. 11.5 length victory .. and left a trio of future Grade 1 winners murdered in his wake. It visually looked a little too much like Funny Cide's 9+ length romp over Midway Road and Scrimshaw to appreciate it.

All this from a horse who, as a 2yo, ran an insane figure despite breaking slow from the rail in his only stakes try sprinting.

I don't think anyone sane can possibly watch the Belmont and not conclude that SJ ran without a doubt a far superior race to everyone else.

He had to fight on the lead with Purge early - easily dispose of Purge after 6 furlongs - have a 7f Grade 1 Malibu winner in Rock Hard Ten make a big and insanely pre-mature move at him ... which he repelled shockingly effortless. He ran a spectacular race for 11 furlongs .. and a dream trip next out Travers winner was able to grind him down when he hit a wall and stopped in the last furlong.

After 10fs in the Belmont:

Smarty Jones 1st by 3.5 lengths
Birdstone 2nd by 3.5 lengths
Rock Hard Ten 3rd by 5 lengths
Eddington 4th by 7 lengths
Royal Assault 5th by 15 lengths

It wasn't totally lost on me either that Smarty Jones was trained by John Servis and ridden by Stewart Elliot. Not exactly a wizardly trainer and a competent jock. Still, if someone put Curlin 1st and Smarty Jones 5th .. I wouldn't argue that much.