I don't know if anyone on this board is a Smarty Jones fan but this is big new's if you are! :D
This mare has nice bloodlines? Perhaps a nice racer? :D
In a dimly lit stall in rural Bourbon County in the middle of Monday night, a mare with bloodlines to thoroughbred royalty began to labor
All the necessary people were called and, with the moon waxing large, with the smell of rain in the air, she lay down and without much ado gave birth to a bay filly with four white socked feet.
Happens all the time in this part of Kentucky at this time of year.
But this was different. This filly¹s daddy is not mere horse royalty, he is Smarty Jones, the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, also known as the People¹s Horse. And this is the first foal the charismatic chestnut sweetheart has ever begat.
Shoppingwithbetty stood over her baby yesterday morning as the foal dozed in a thick bed of straw at Stone Farm in Paris where she was born. At the time of the birth, Smarty Jones was asleep in his richly appointed barn at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, in the same stall where the brilliant Seattle Slew lived for many years. To say Smarty slept through the ruckus would likely be accurate. To say the folks at Stone Farm are delighted would be accurate as well. To say the folks at Three Chimneys are delighted would be understatement.
Robert Clay, owner of Three Chimneys, and Dan Rosenberg, farm president, drove to Paris to welcome the new baby. “She’s very well-made, very strong, very alert, very independent. She has tons of substance; she’s beautiful,” said Rosenberg, who adds the farm is always excited about the potential that a first crop of foals brings for any stallion. “For Smarty Jones, it’s ten-fold.”
The hope is, of course, that the progeny can equal their father. Which will be difficult as Smarty is a remarkable horse with a remarkable story. His is not simply a tale of magnificent racing prowess (eight wins, one second, near-record earnings of $7.6 million -- the fifth richest American thoroughbred of all time) but is one of a legend that captivated a nation.
It is said, for example, that other horses’ trainers conceded defeat to him rather than try him, that other horse owners rooted for him. It is unquestionable that his playful personality, his backstory of comeback from injury and his will made him a horse the public loved and cheered for.
And his life consists of being turned out to graze, being gazed upon by at least two dozen visitors a day (reservations required) and running as he pleases, where he pleases, when he pleases -- usually around the time the visitors show.
His first foal’s birth was “unremarkable,” which is a good thing. It was “textbook in fact,” according to Stone Farm manager J.R. Sebastian. With a star, stripe and snip on her face, she is “medium-sized and a little upright.”
She stood after about 40 minutes and, after the sun rose yesteday, the baby was checked by a veterinarian who listened to her heart and deemed her very good.
A halter was placed on the small horse for easier handling. The baby nursed.
By 9, Shoppingwithbetty was taking her baby out for a turn in the paddock where the unnamed filly “bounced around a bit,” said Sebastian. The mother needed the turn-out to help her own body recover.
Exhausted by the morning, the two were returned to the stall where baby slept while her watchful mama calmly surveyed all who came around to glimpse her work.
Shoppingwithbetty, owned by Stone Farm’s Arthur Hancock in partnership with Tom Tatham of Oak Cliff Stables, was not expected to be the first of the mares that Smarty covered to give birth.
She was bred 10 days later than White Gulch, an expectant mare at Taylor Made Farm in Lexington. But nature, apparently, waits for no horse.
Ninety-one more foals by Smarty Jones are due this season. His stud fee is $100,000.
Ann Peters, seasons and matings advisor at the Midway farm, says that she had chosen Danzig’s bloodlines as her number one choice for crosses with Smarty because his line was crossing so well with those of Elusive Quality, Smarty’s sire. “It’s hard to beat Danzig who was one of the best stallions of the last half of the 20th century” she said, reminding that the great horse just died earlier this month.
“This is a way of passing the torch.”
It was the first foal of the year at Stone Farm which is awaiting 70 more arrivals this season.
Stone Farm is not unfamiliar with famous babies and famous daddies.
Risen Star, the big Secretariat colt, was raised there. Kentucky Derby winners Gato Del Sol (1982), Sunday Silence (1989) and Fusiachi Pegasus (2000) were all born in the same barn as this filly. Sunday Silence is today the leading Japanese sire.
A second breeding season begins for Smarty in mid-February.
It is reasonable to ask what Tuesday’s baby is worth. Rosenberg at Three Chimneys would not venture a guess then reconsidered.
“How about priceless,” he asked.
Very late on yesterday morning, at the January sales at Keeneland, a mare in foal to Smarty sold for $950,000.
