The Belmont is the true test of the champion, and we've seen enough examples in recent years of just how hard it is to win the thrid jewel in the crown, but that being said, I have a very hard time seeing anyone come up with a logical reason why Smarty won't win it all, or, more accurately, which other three year old is going to beat him.

His performance in the Preakness was truly amazing, mostly because he's not just good, but so much better, more mature, more professional than all his peers.

That horse does anything you ask him to do -- period. Eight different distances, all kinds of tracks, sloppy, fast, winter, summer -- nothing bothers him.

He's an absolute freak and enough breeding experts of which I most certainly am not one
have looked deep into his pedigree and he has super breeding for the classic races including the mile and a quarter derby (look for Frank Mitchell's recent column in the DRF for a closer look at his pedigree)
and mile and half Belmont, so get those illusions about his pedigree out of your minds. That's absolute nonsense.

What is going to change in the next three weeks? Some three-year old is going to come out of nowhere and rise up and assert his dominance in the mile and half Belmont Stakes? How is that going to happen? If it's any of the horses we've already seen, they're going to have to show something they haven't shown yet -- maybe the Cliff's Edge's Blue Grass would be legit, but other than that race -- who could you possibly come up???

Did you see the way he galloped out in the Preakness??? Unbelieveable.

Servis just has to keep him together for three more weeks, and he seems like the kind of horse who's so well-balanced and takes care of himself, that he should be OK -- that's the only thing that could go wrong -- him getting hurt or not getting there.


Let's start looking at the exacta in the Belmont -- which colt might wind up in the distant rear view mirror view of Stewie Elliot??? That, my friends, is the question.