I didn't say Smarty Jones was a great horse. I said he brought a lot of fans to the sport. These are two entirely different topics.

Good stuff. Thanks.

I agree, I love those old photos...though I have to say I kept looking for the PP punch line.

Sorry, then, I misunderstood.

Hopefully somebody can find a list of Laz Barrera's accomplishments for you. They were many. Besides Affirmed and Bold Forbes he also trained It's in the Air who defeated the mighty Davona Dale in the Alabama. He took over JO Tobin's training during his 3YO season and I believe was his trainer of record when he beat Slew in the Swaps. He was a major force in the game.

It was packed, no doubt about it, but I don't believe any of those attendance figures. And, I am including other TC venues as well.

Quick Version
From Wikipedia, therefore no need to link it.

Born in Havana, "Laz" Barrera was one of nine brothers who went on to become involved in thoroughbred horse racing in the United States. While in his teens, he began working at a racetrack in his native Cuba and within a few years was one of the country's most respected young trainers. Seeking increased opportunities in a larger market, in the 1940s Barrera moved to Mexico to race horses at the Hipodromo de las Americas in Mexico City then emigrated to the United States where he trained his first Stakes race winner in 1971. In the ensuing years he built a solid reputation and in late 1975 was given Bold Forbes to train who had been that year's Puerto Rican two-year-old thoroughbred sprint champion. Racing in the U.S. in 1976 under jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., Bold Forbes won several important races for Barrera including the Wood Memorial Stakes in record time. He went on to win the most prestigious race of all, the Kentucky Derby, finished third in the Preakness Stakes and, for a converted sprinter, pulled off a dramatic win in the 1½ mile long Belmont Stakes.

Barrera's accomplishments led to an offer from Louis & Patrice Wolfson to take over as head trainer for their Harbor View Farm in Ocala, Marion County, Florida. There, Barrera took charge of a horse named Affirmed who, under 18-year-old jockey Steve Cauthen, would become one of the great horses in American racing history. Affirmed was a two-time Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year winner and won Eclipse Awards in each of the three years he raced. Laz Barrera won fourteen Grade 1 Stakes races with Affirmed, the most by any stallion in history, and earned racing immortality by capturing the 1978 U.S. Triple Crown.

In a career that lasted almost fifty years, Laz Barrera trained six champions and more than 140 American Stakes race winners. He was the leading money-winning trainer from 1977 to 1980 and in the process became the only trainer to ever win four consecutive Eclipse Awards. In 1979, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Laz Barrera passed away in 1991; the "Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes," a Grade II seven furlong race for 3-year-olds at Hollywood Park is named in his honor.

Thanks Randall.

Not being able to witness that Belmont, how much of a natural sprinter was he Andy? And how was he able to get him 12 furlongs.

1976 Belmont

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTrtq-zgZPw

Sadly I can't access Youtube from work. Will have to wait.

Randy Moss the horse player or Randy Moss the wide reciever?

To be honest my recall of specific careers isn't great from that time, though I was at Aqueduct when he won the 1975 Wood Memorial ( beating Songkisser easily ), but he was a bullet. He arrived in Saratoga in 1975 after having won, I believe, quite a few races in Puerto Rico, and simply demolished the field in one of the 2YO stakes leading up to the Hopeful. I cannot tell you what he did from there to the Wood. Honest Pleasure was all the rage going into that Derby, which I believe had a small field ( eight? ), after crushing in the Flamingo and Florida Derby ( where I believe he covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:46 4/5 ). But, Bold Forbes wired him in the Derby. From there, Honest Pleasure's connections vowed not to let him get away on the lead in the Preakness, and all hell broke loose ( much like in 1988 ), and while Honest Pleasure faded to fifth or sixth ( there were only six ) Bold Forbes did manage to run third to Elocutionist who took great advantage of the pace. As usual, few were left for the Belmont, and Bold Forbes gamely held off McKenzie Bridge and Great Contractor ( who had actually run 1 1/2 previously having competed in a 1 1/2 grass stake in Florida against olders a couple months or so previous ). While his competition was not super strong, it was an amazing achievement, especially for a horse who less than a year earlier was the sensation in 2YO sprints in Puerto Rico.

The rest of the year for him is sketchy to me but he may have made his one and only other start in the 7F Vosburgh where he was upset by the mighty My Juliet.

On how he was able to carry his speed the 1 1/2 of the Belmont.....it felt as though Cordero carried him over the wire. I can still remember watching that race.

I have been to all the belmonts since 1996 and 2004 was PACKED! I dont know if there were 120,000 but there were sooo many people there. That was before they blocked the college kids from bringing in beer.

Also, Smarty Jones very much increased the population of horse racing "casual" fans. At least for that 5 week period of the triple crown. I was living in PA at the time. Everyone was having Smarty Parties for the Belmont.

Even now when I talk about horse racing to the average Joe who has never been to the track they bring up Smarty Jones.

He was and will be one of my favorite horses of all time. I bought a nice painting of him from Nick Martinez over the summer. I wish i could use it as my avatar!

being from the south, i dont think you can understand the buzz that smarty created in the north east that great summer of 04 :p

It seems to me that Smarty has had as much to do with the return of Oaklawn Park to some degree of prestige and credibility in the eyes of the racing public (especially on the Coasts) as the increased purses from the slot money. While his owners might have been money hungry and sent him to the breeding shed much too soon, ever since Smarty completed the Southwest/Rebel/Ark Derby path through Oaklawn, every 3YO who shows up at Oaklawn with a hope of making the Derby gets compared to him.

Maybe not the most logical response, but to me makes as much since as naming a race at Lone Star after Ouija Board...

Maybe you are right, but I always felt that Oaklawn was a pretigious meet, and of course have found the recent comparisons to Smarty Jones amusing....as if somehow by racing on a particular surface one horse is somehow comparable to another.

The Lone Star comparison doesn't seem particularly out of line except that Oaklawn has been around for quite a while and Lone Star opened about a week ago. To be perfectly honest, changing one of their prep races to the Smart Jones seems like at best a cheap publicity stunt....which thankfully they have so far avoided.

The weather in 2004 wasn't great either. Spotty rain all day, temps in the low 60's. All I know is that having been to the Belmont a couple of times, I had to claim some space around the duck pond in order to even have a foot to set up my chairs and tailgate. That isn't normal for Belmont.

Maybe not... OR, maybe it has something to do with my age. Easy Goer got me into racing and I think that he would have put Smarty to shame, but that's JMO. :p