"He cleaned up his feed tub last night," trainer John Servis said Monday morning, "which is the first good sign. We still haven't been able to get this horse tired, and as long as he's not tired from this race, he'll go on to the Preakness. If he shows us that he is tired from the effort, then he won't run in the Preakness."


“Just before the race, Servis leaned over to Smarty Jone’s owner Roy Chapman.
"Chap, whatever happens, we've had a great ride," he said.
"Absolutely, John, absolutely," the owner replied."

“Q. John, your thoughts, emotions, things you said, things you might have thought coming down the stretch?

JOHN SERVIS: You know, when Stu reached back and really got after him and he started to pull away, it was just past the eighth pole and the first thing I thought of...the other day, right before the unfortunate incident with Wimbledon, I was talking with Bob Baffert and Baffert told me, he said: "John, you've got a good horse. If you're fortunate enough to win the race, when they go past the eighth pole and you know you're going to win it, you're going to be overcome by a feeling that I can't explain to you, and you'll never -- you'll never get over it. Every race you run in will never be the same after the Kentucky Derby." And my wife and I were both there listening, and it was -- he actually had a little bit of a tear in his eye telling us.

When this horse came to the eighth pole, I was thinking about what he said. He's right, it was just overwhelming.” Unquote

This game is more than about raking up piles of money and cashing bets. Some of the participants in the game are in tune to the larger dimensions. Kristin Mulhall, is one, John Servis is certainly another. You have to admire Servis sticking with jockey Stewart Elliott when he could have ridden whomever he chose. You have to admire jockey’s like Pat Day and Jerry Bailey giving Elliott advice upon how to run the race, though its hard to say he needed advice. It’s refreshing to see that kind of character displayed in a game so full of tradition as this one is. Bob Baffert certainly has his critics, but his statement quoted above is majestic.



Post Edited (05-02-04 21:28)