Can Big Brown Avoid the Fate of Smarty Jones?

It’s been four years since we clung to the idea that Smarty Jones would take the Triple Crown in 2004. Four years since we last confronted the exciting possibility that we were about to end the drought since Affirmed, 30 years ago. I was certain Smarty would take it. Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat in the most smashing Belmont victory anyone will every see, promised us that Smarty would win the race by 25 lengths. Everyone was around the bend. We were a nation in love. A friend of mine dropped thousands of dollars for two good seats at the race and flew in from California to watch it. Down by the rail on the grandstand side, I stood with kids from Ohio and Virginia and Wisconsin. There were people there who go to the races all the time, and people who had never been to a race before, and all of them were there waving blue and white Smarty fans in the air; all of them were there to grab a look at what we were sure was about to be a moment in horse racing history. The horse had never lost a race, why would he lose this one? He’d already beaten all the best horses in the business, who was going to come out of the woodwork and beat him now?