Smith showed value of experience
Casual conversation in the Belmont Park paddock last Saturday created a confident look for jockey Mike Smith minutes before he mounted Justify and rode into the history books.
Trainer Bob Baffert said simply to the rider, “All right, man.” And Smith posed for photos with reps from the owning partnership WinStar Farm and China Horse Club. There was internal angst, Smith admitted later, about the crowd swelling along the rail and the break from the starting gate.
But age isn’t just a number in horse racing.
Smith said experience – both the nearly 5,500 career wins and many more losses – taught him to communicate with thoroughbreds without saying a word. Each worry just prior to the Belmont, according to Smith, was quelled by the “professional” nature of Justify, who won the 1 -mile classic and previously the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, making Smith the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown at age 52.
Age, we learned through Smith during iconic moments, is valuable.
“I felt good all day long,” he said. “I honestly did. I even took a nap. I really did. I felt great, and that probably wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I’d have been probably running through a wall or something.”
As it turned out, Smith’s ride that day proved he could communicate with people without speaking out loud, too.
Justify broke clean and went to the lead, moving quick over the first quarter before establishing a rhythm and slowing the pace. With some horses moving up and others falling back, Justify maintained a healthy lead down the backstretch, through the far turn and pointed for the finish line.
Baffert watched and pleaded, internally, for his jockey to be patient.
“I was like, ‘Oh, Mike, oh, Mike, don’t empty that tank, Mike,”’ Baffert said.
Smith said he could hear Baffert’s voice as he turned for the home stretch.
“I said, Bob is telling me right now, ‘Don’t go to that whip yet, just keep hand riding, keep hand riding,”’ Smith said. “I know what he’s saying, and then he’s telling me, ‘Now, would you just do it.”’
He did it. From the break, the steady pace in the middle and the calculated flourishing finish, Smith’s execution at the Belmont was, essentially, flawless.
“Very, very blessed, and I can’t tell you, this is just amazing,” Smith said.
That’s not how it happened three weeks prior in sloppy, soggy conditions at Pimlico Park in the Preakness.
Smith admitted he was too concerned with Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic, and once Justify moved ahead of his rival, Smith relaxed as Bravazo surged to within a half-length at the line.
“By no means did I think Bravazo was going to literally come out of the clouds like he did,” Smith said. “I thought I had put everybody away, and I peeked under my arm, and you couldn’t see a whole lot, but I thought I had him there. The wire was close enough that we were OK.
“I could have come off the turn really riding him and made that race look a whole lot better than what it probably did.”
The plan was simple at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
Baffert told Smith to get Justify out of the gate clean and the rest, for the superior horse, would take care of itself.
Of course, it wasn’t that simple in sloppy conditions at the wettest-ever Run for the Roses, but Smith said he felt relieved when Justify, the unbeaten favorite in the field of 20, burst near the lead early.
“I just basically stayed out of the way and kept a leg on each side and my mind in the middle,” Smith said.
“When you get a horse with this kind of talent and stride like his, it’s about getting him in a rhythm. In a nice, happy rhythm, they’re going to run. It’s just a matter of you holding the closers off. He’s going to run his race.”
These were the winning moves Baffert envisioned when he paired Smith and Justify after the horse won his first race as a 3-year-old at Santa Anita in February with Drayden Van Dyke aboard. Baffert said he made the switch to Smith because of the pressure that comes with guiding a favorite at the Derby and the Triple Crown trail.
“Working with him, it’s a joy,” Baffert said. “I don’t worry about Mike Smith. I worry about the horse.” That wasn’t always the case. “When we first started using him we really didn’t click,” Baffert said. “We kept running second.”
In 2012, Smith rode Baffert-trainee Bodemeister, the morning-line favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. The pair led at the quarter-mile and half-mile marks but were overtaken by I’ll Have Another down the stretch. Smith and Bodemeister finished second at the Preakness and Smith guided Baffert’s horse Paynter to a runner-up finish at the Belmont.
The Triple Crown of second-place finishes.
Recently, though, Smith credits Baffert for helping him, “achieve so many of my goals.” Smith had the mount for Baffert’s win with Abel Tasman in the 2017 Kentucky Oaks.
And with Justify, Smith downplayed his role by saying Baffert put, “an old man out there to sit still, who stays out of the way and lets a good horse be a good horse.”
And so, Justify became the 13th thoroughbred to win the Triple Crown and Smith just the 12th person to ride the same horse across the finish line first in each of horse racing’s three most important events.
Secretariat jockey Ron Turcotte said the day before the Belmont that he couldn’t wait to welcome Smith into the club.
“It gives you recognition for years and years to come,” Turcotte said. Yes, Smith’s legacy is solidified. The native of Dexter, New Mexico, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003. He has two Kentucky Derby wins, two at the Preakness and three at the Belmont. He’s won an ESPY, Eclipse Awards, countless Breeders’ Cup and international races.
And, seemingly, he’s still improving. Smith has placed in the top 10 on the national earnings list for jockeys in four of the past five years and is a lock for every serious award a jockey can win this year. For Smith, age is an asset. “Just keep riding horses like (Justify) and they keep you around for a long time,” Smith said. “You don’t have to work a whole lot. They do all the work for you.”
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