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Originally Posted by King Glorious
Veteran jockey Gary Stevens said, "That's as good as any horse I've ever seen," and mentioned the Preakness winner in the same breath as Secretariat.
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Who cares? Stevens called Rock Hard Ten the best horse he ever rode. His opinion is worthless.
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His effort earned him a tie for the second-best Beyer Speed Figure in a Triple Crown race since we began publishing these ratings in 1987. Easy Goer recorded a figure of 122 in the 1989 Belmont Stakes. Summer Squall and Silver Charm got ratings of 118 in the Preaknesses of 1990 and 1997, respectively. Smarty Jones's 118 puts him into some illustrious company.
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It was unquestionably a great performance. However, it was only a slightly better performance than the Preakness wins turned in by Bernardini and Funny Cide.
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Smith said after finishing fourth in the Preakness. "But he's in a league of his own. He might be another Secretariat. I ain't kidding you."
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Smith said Zenyatta was better than Holy Bull, Cigar, Skip Away, and all of the other males he rode. His opinion is worthless. And Smarty Jones wasn't exactly another Secretariat either.
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Stevens said after finishing second. "I think I just witnessed a horse that's going to go down in history as one of the best we've ever seen."
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If he repeated that performance over and over, yes. He didn't.
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"I got goose bumps at the eighth pole," Stevens said. "I thought, 'I have never seen this in my life.'
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I guess if he really believed that Rock Hard Ten was better than horses like Silver Charm and Gentleman....
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"I got to see him in full color today," Desormeaux said. "He's like Secretariat.
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Yes, both are chestnuts. Very good, Kent.
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Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who stopped Funny Cide's 2003 Triple Crown bid in the Belmont Stakes with Empire Maker, says he believes Smarty Jones can be mentioned in the same sentence as racing legends Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Spectacular Bid.
"The way he looks right now, he's got an edge on all of them," Frankel said Thursday morning. "He runs on all kinds of tracks, he can make his own race. If somebody wants to go to the lead, he can sit. If nobody wants to go, he can go to the lead. The only thing is if he stays together. If they can get five or six more races out of him, he can be an all-timer, one of the greats."
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"the way he looks right now, he's got an edge on all of them" ... yeah, because they've all been out of training for about 25 years or more.
I don't agree that Smarty Jones was as tactical as Frankel is making him out to sound. You certainly could not get away with taking him back the way you always could with a Spectacular Bid.
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"Seattle Slew used to get hot if somebody got too close to him," Frankel said. "This colt, nothing bothers him. Secretariat, he didn't like an off track, he got beat a couple of times on an off track. The horse he reminds me the most of is Spectacular Bid, because Spectacular Bid was like that: he'd rate, he'd go to the lead, he'd handle any surface."
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Smarty Jones could rate the same way a Holy Bull type of horse could rate. That's very different from taking back and still being able to run huge like Spectacular Bid could. Spectacular Bid won a ruthlessly fast KY Derby from 10 lengths off the early pace. When Spectacular Bid was defeated by a year older and fresher Affirmed at 12 furlongs - he managed to rate kindly while taken back behind fractions of 25 and 49 - and still ran a 127 Beyer in defeat.
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But I'm inclined to compare Smarty to Spectacular Bid - and if you know me, you know that's saying something.
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Great. Try comparing them on the basis of body of work on the racetrack. It's like trying to compare Brandon Marshall to Jerry Rice.