JC / Railbird

Horses Archive

Dear Smarty

“With more than one million pieces of fan mail, several dozen marriage proposals and an animated feature film in discussion, Smarty Jones shows no signs of diminishing popularity post-retirement.” Marriage proposals? (Bucks County Courier Times)
Comment: Three months away from the Kentucky Derby and several horses have generated Smarty 2.0 hype, such as Rockport Harbor, Shamardal, and Lost in the Fog. Sometimes I get the feeling that racing, as a whole, is looking for a Big Horse: a horse beloved by the nation, a horse that can pack in the crowds not just to watch it race, but to watch others race, and thus save the sport. Smarty Jones was almost that horse, Funny Cide too. Maybe it’ll be Rockport this year or Declan’s Moon. But as nice as the crowds are (and I love to see the crowds — a filled grandstand is a good change from the typical day’s sparse trackside population), I suspect that there is no Big Horse that’ll save racing. For all the love the Smarty fans mentioned in the above article evince for the chestnut colt, there’s little evidence of a love for the game.

Posted in Horses on February 5, 2005

Funny Cide Ready

For his five-year-old campaign. The gelding is wintering at Gulfstream Park and will return to the track later this spring. “The tentative plan is to have Funny Cide make his first start on March 5 in the Grade II, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap…. If he doesn’t make it into the starting gate for that one, Funny Cide may go in the Grade III, $100,000 Skip Away Handicap on April 2 at a mile and an eighth.” I love the Sackatoga gang for continuing to run this fabulous horse — although, I’m sure it’s not that tough a decision for them, since there’s no pressure to breed. If only more owners of stars had similar freedom. (Saratogian)

Posted in Horses on January 17, 2005

Azeri Retired

“Azeri, the world’s all-time leading money-earning female, has been retired from racing. Michael Paulson, who heads his father’s Allen Paulson Living Trust that raced Azeri, made the decision to retire the 6-year-old daughter of Jade Hunter rather than race her a few more times, as was under consideration. ‘In some sense I’m sad, but in another (sense) I can’t be,’ said Paulson. ‘She had a remarkable career and we’re very proud of her.'” (Blood-Horse)

Posted in Horses on December 23, 2004