Birdstone Catches Smarty Jones To Win Belmont, Deny Triple Crown

I t took 12 tries for trainer Nick Zito to win the Belmont Stakes. It took 2:27 2/5 for Birdstone to end that slump on Saturday afternoon at the expense of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones, who was looking to become the 12th Visa Triple Crown winner in the 136th running of the million-dollar, 1 ½-mile “Test of the Champion.”

And Birdstone’s one-length victory took the heart out of the majority in a record crowd 120,139 and NBC’s national audience.

This was the day it was supposed to happen, a day racing would again embrace a Triple Crown winner. It had been too long, 1978 with Affirmed to be exact, and you couldn’t have asked for a better hero than Smarty Jones. The “Philly Flash” looked like a lock to become racing’s all-time leading money earner, needing only victory in the Belmont Stakes to force Visa to deliver on its $5 million bonus .

But the grind of running three times in five weeks at three different racetracks at three different distances had taken its toll on Smarty Jones. And Zito, who had five seconds and a third in his previous 11 Belmont Stakes tries; who had a full deck for the Kentucky Derby reduced to a few wild cards, was now waiting in the wings with Birdstone and another shooter, Royal Assault, who won the Sir Barton at Pimlico on Preakness Day.

Birdstone had run eighth in the Kentucky Derby, but afterward it was discovered that he had thrown a shoe. So, he was given a breather and pointed for the Belmont Stakes, which was to be run on a track where he had already proven himself. Birdstone, afterall, had won the Grade 1 Champagne here last fall as a two-year-old.

So, Birdstone had an experience edge over Smarty Jones, who was making his Belmont debut. And certainly Zito, with all of those losses, had plenty of Belmont experience over Servis not only on this race, but on the Triple Crown road in general.

“The Triple Crown takes a lot out of these horses,” said Zito, a two-time Kentucky Derby winner who was nominated - but lost to Shug McGaughey - to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame this year. “It’s the mile and a half we call the Belmont Stakes. I’ve been second five times. I know what that means, that last little bit. Sometimes, you know, that’s what happens and I think that’s what happened with Smarty Jones. Just that last little bit.”

That last little bit, for Zito, meant a head loss to Hansel with Derby winner Strike the Gold in 1991; a two-length loss to Tabasco Cat with his 1994 Derby winner Go for Gin; another two-length loss to Thunder Gulch with Star Standard in 1995. His other Belmont seconds - with Thirty Six Red in 1990 and with AP Valentine in 2001 - were distant ones.

To help Birdstone overcome that last little bit, Zito went to jockey Edgar Prado, who pulled off the biggest Belmont Stakes upset victory of them all when he booted home Sarava two years ago. Not only did Sarava returned a stakes record $142.50 for each 42 win ticket, he and Prado ruined War Emblem’s Triple Crown bid.

“I feel a little bad,” Prado said after his victory Saturday returned $74 to the $2 win players. “Smarty Jones is still pretty good, but this horse is bred for the distance. I have to do what I have to do -- and this is what I get paid for. I was very comfortable all the way around. I had a feeling he would run a real good race after the Derby.

“I feel happy and sad at the same time because we are really looking for a champion. A mile and a half is a very tricky distance. He is bred to go the distance and the time between races had him nice and fresh.”

It also didn’t hurt that Smarty Jones, as Servis put it, had a “bullseye on his back.” And knowing there was nothing to lose, his rivals took their shots.

Smarty Jones, breaking from the far outside in post 9, was put into contention immediately by Elliott, who had been flawless aboard him through eight straight wins. He quickly wilted Purge, whom he had beaten twice at Oaklawn Park, who faded after a half-mile of :48 3/5.

The next challenge came from Rock Hard Ten, the Preakness runner-up, whose antics forced the starters to blindfold him in order to load him into the gate. He stayed in the mix and was a length off Smarty Jones after a mile in 1:35 2/5.

At this point, Smarty Jones looked to have found the Holy Grail, but he wasn’t alone for long, as Birdstone swept to victory.

“Smarty broke very sharp,” Elliott said, “and I got a hold of him, but a couple of horses came up on his inside and just kind of had him on the run.

“I thought that maybe, if he could get on the lead by himself, he’ll relax, which he might have. But I had a horse on the inside, then one on the outside and a horse on the inside again. So, he never got a chance to relax. I just had to keep letting him out a little bit at a time, and it just took its toll on him.”

Smarty Jones will now get a well-deserved rest and point toward race later in the year, most likely the Pennsylvania Derby on Labor Day back at his home base of Philadelphia Park.

“He’s not done,” Servis said. “You’ll be seeing plenty of him and hopefully, we’ll get to race next year. And he’ll go on and do some great things and he’ll be noted as the great horse -like Spectacular Bid that didn’t win the Triple Crown.”

Birdstone is owned by socialite Marylou Whitney, who is a very big part of the Saratoga scene.

Last year, Birdstone’s Whitney-owned older half-sister, Bird Town, won the Kentucky Oaks. Saratoga named a street corner after her and Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide.

Who knows what will happen when Whitney, Zito, Prado and Birdstone come to town this summer, pointing for the Grade 1, $1 million Travers, the “Mid-Summer Derby,” on Saturday, August 28th with the Belmont Stakes winner?

They may have to broaden Broadway.

In the meantime, Zito will relish his first Belmont Stakes victory.

Sorry, Smarty, but this was a long time coming.