Jason Servis watched with pride when John, his brother and fellow thoroughbred trainer, sent Smarty Jones to victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes in 2004. But his joy turned to sadness when the long-shot Birdstone upset Smarty Jones’s Triple Crown bid by one length in the Belmont Stakes. Sadness turned to dismay when the colt never ran again.
Smarty Jones was retired less than two months after his lone defeat closed a brilliant but fleeting nine-race career. The colt was said to have “chronic bruising of the bottom of the cannon bone in all four fetlock joints.