Smarty may get beat June 5th and he may race long enough that the shine goes off the apple and people stop comparing him to the great horses of the past. But assuming he is somewhat special, I've been contemplating why? Why is this littlish horse out of a solid but unspectacular pedigree the running machine he currently is? Why?

He was fast early. His second race he ran a Zed. If you look at his T-Form, he could bounce and in all likelihood still win. Why was he so fast so early and why is he fast now? Did you all see the end of those last two races? I'm not the greatest trip handicapper, (Note confusion with Tapit), but I saw a horse doing it on his own and post wire still looking like he was enjoying himself and wanting to do more. I'm sure Smarty could have run a 1:54 and change on Pimlico day and the track was somewhat heavy. Servis has said "We haven't gotten to the bottom of him. We can't get him tired." Thats a trainer talking, so I take it with a grain of salt, but I haven't seen this horse reach down or get tired either. He's got more speed than hes showing and large reserves of stamina. I wonder if a horse is fortunate enough to surprise him by drawing into him late, if that horse can really hope to get by. We don't know yet. The race pace could allow it. It's a matter of circumstances.

Mike Smith said this of Smarty's Preakness:

"Sometimes it looks like Stewart's riding him, but it's like he's just pedaling along next to you, like, 'Okay, I'm here.' Like it's no big deal," Smith said. "When we went around the turn, I look over and he's got both ears forward like he's out for a Sunday stroll."

I've seen the same thing. I've seen this horse enjoying the race. The other thing is he's just got the perfect pace style for a good horse. He has speed to avoid problems and isn't too head-strong to rate. He's the perfect pace race horse. A real hot pace could be his nemisis, but so far we haven't seen one develope.

Still you go back to, "Why is this horse like he is"? I don't have any real reason for saying this, but I think that gate mishap before he ever ran made him a better horse. I think it settled him down and as strange as it seems I'm suspecting it made him faster. "How can you say that Chuckles...you goofball?" I can't really answer that. Impulse transmission? I don't know, but I get the feeling that knock on the head made him a better racehorse. I'd hate to see it utilized as a training technique though. I can see Bobby Frankel sledging each of his two year olds in turn.

CtC