Quote:
|
Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind
How exactly is " the industry is still realizing the benefits of Smarty Jones "?
And, by the way, calling it the largest on site attendance in New York Sports is a skewed approach, as while leaving out the fact that the announced attendance was a lie, it is only a " record " because of the amount of people Belmont is able to hold as opposed to other sports arenas. I think if Yankee Stadium held 250,000 people that Belmont record would certainly not exist and easily the same thing could be said for Madison Square Garden for, at least, the first Ali/Frazier fight. Or, perhaps you would like to argue with me that Smarty Jones had more popular and worldwide appeal than that heavyweight bout.
Remember, I am not the one who tried to skew this arguement with a misleading statistic.
|
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!