Doing the Smarty thing with Justify

“Tis but a scratch.” – The Black Knight, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

Okay, so it’s more than a scratch. The reported filling in the left-front ankle of Triple Crown winner and Maxim cover boy Justify is a long way from his heart, but it is enough to tap the brakes on any excitement for possible heroics through the remainder of the year.

No one who has been paying attention truly expected Justify to be running soon anyway. His perfect six-pack of a career runs from his debut on Feb. 18 through the Belmont Stakes on June 9 was an unprecedented seizure of the racing stage. It makes sense that such an intense compression of training and high-pressure racing would take some kind of toll, even though Justify came on like an athlete whose greatest concern was the delivery of his next meal.

One of the most charming eccentricities of the Thoroughbred sport is that in the most reputable stables a classic champion receives relatively the same care as the winner of the Los Coyotes Claiming Stakes. Bob Baffert, Justify’s trainer, stated without a trace of irony that he was being “super-duper cautious” in giving the big, red colt another two weeks of evaluation before drawing any conclusions, as opposed, I guess, to simply being super cautious with a run-of-the-mill stakes horse. Justify has earned the duper.

Watching the Justify drama from afar, John Servis was reminded of his post-Triple Crown experiences with Smarty Jones, the undefeated Derby and Preakness winner of 2004 who finished second in the Belmont. To be accurate, the trainer was reminded by a nosey caller, since Servis has better things to do than sit around daydreaming about what might have been.

Smarty Jones, owned by Philadelphians Roy and Pat Chapman and ridden by Stewart Elliott, ran twice in November 2003 and seven times in 2004, beginning on Jan. 3 at Aqueduct and followed by a sweep of Oaklawn Park’s 3-year-old events before attacking the Triple Crown. The Belmont, his final start, was on June 5.

“We were going to give him a break after the Belmont anyway,” Servis said. “He had some filling in his ankles, but it was very minor. It wasn’t overly concerning by any means.

“So, we basically tack-walked him for about 30 days, and he looked pretty good. Then, about 45 days after the Belmont, we sent him back out to the racetrack for a jog, and I could tell when he jogged off he just wasn’t right. That’s when we decided to send him for X-rays, which were negative, and then scintigraphy.”

After which, in the words of the trainer, “all hell broke loose.” The detailed imaging revealed what was described as “bone bruising” to all four cannon bones, which, to the layman’s ear, sounded both made up and very serious.

“The risks are minor,” assured Dr. Larry Bramlage, who supervised the tests. “We bring horses back from this injury all the time. It’s sort of like spraining an ankle. The more you keep moving, the faster it resolves. If you put him in a field, it would resolve in short order. There are no structural problems on the radiographs. His chances for a full recovery are excellent.”

However, by that time, the Three Chimneys Farm of Robert Clay was involved in the ownership of Smarty Jones as a future stallion, which meant any suggestion of a racing comeback would have a financial impact.

“There’s no hiding that economic decisions played a factor,” Clay said at the time. “The horse needs a minimum of three months’ rest.”

And if the colt could not take training, or was a shadow of his proven excellence, “then we’ve missed the breeding season,” Clay said. In early August, Smarty Jones was officially retired.

It is difficult to convey the popularity of Smarty Jones, which in 2004 was driven primarily by conventional media, racing bloggers, and fan clubs. After winning the Derby, he was the first Thoroughbred to make the cover of Sports Illustrated in 21 years. Had he done business in this hyper-driven era of social media, his name would have gone Kardashian-level crazy.

“If we knew then what we know now – in terms of MRIs, cleaner X-rays, shock-waving while the horse is laid up – he’d have been fine and come back even healthier,” Servis said. “And, my God, what a 4-year-old he would have been. But the Chapmans wanted guarantees no one could give them, that nothing catastrophic would happen if he came back. That’s something no one can give.”

Smarty Jones initially stood for a fee of $100,000, was later moved to his home state of Pennsylvania, and shuttled to Uruguay for the Southern Hemisphere breeding season. In 2016, he returned to Kentucky to stand at Calumet Farm – for a fee of $7,500.

Racing fans can’t be blamed if they brace for the echoes of Smarty Jones in the Justify saga. As a stallion, he is worth [pick a number] to his consortium of high-investment owners. Servis knows the drill, but from a training standpoint, he sees a glimmer of reason to think that Justify just might run again.

“You do wonder if it’s worth taking the chance,” Servis said. “But the fact that they shipped him back to Del Mar with Bob is a very good sign.”