Smarty Jones Gives Velez a Familiar Feeling

A couple of days after Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby, his trainer, John Servis, saw Bobby Velez at their home track, Philadelphia Park. Before Velez could shake Servis’ hand, Servis reached out to grasp Velez’s.

“Congratulations, Bobby,” Servis said. “How does it feel to be connected to two Kentucky Derby winners?”

A sense of pride welled within Velez, 57 -- a trainer and exercise rider -- as he recalled the story this week.

“That meant a lot to me, coming from a guy like John,” he said.

Nineteen years ago, Velez galloped Spend A Buck into the Kentucky Derby. Spend A Buck’s victory in 1985, combined with three wins in races at Garden State Park, added up to a $2-million Garden State bonus.

The day Spend A Buck won the Jersey Derby, he earned $2.6 million, including the bonus, which was the second-biggest day a horse had had in North America until Smarty Jones’ Kentucky Derby win on May 1. That was worth $5.88 million, including a $5-million bonus from Oaklawn Park.

And should Smarty Jones win Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico, he will be two-thirds of the way to the $5-million Visa-sponsored Triple Crown bonus. The final race in the series is the Belmont Stakes on June 5.

Velez was the exercise rider for Smarty Jones until early this year when Servis chose the Arkansas route to the Derby. Peter Van Trump eventually took over after a morning rider at Oaklawn Park didn’t work out. “I wanted to go,” Velez said. “But because I train a few horses [at Philadelphia Park], it would have been hard to travel.”

The late Budd Lepman, the trainer who employed Velez for 19 years, also made it difficult in 1985. The Puerto Rican-born Velez worked his way up to assistant trainer, and had taken off only nine days in 10 years, but when he asked for 10 days off so he could accompany Spend A Buck to Churchill Downs for the Derby, Lepman said no. So Velez quit Lepman and went to work for Cam Gambolati, Spend A Buck’s trainer.

The best horse Velez galloped for Lepman was Eillo, who won the first running of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Hollywood Park in 1984. Following colic surgery, Eillo died a month later at a clinic in Chino. Velez was with him to the end. Eillo was the posthumous winner of an Eclipse Award.

Velez said there’s no comparison between a Breeders’ Cup winner and a Derby winner. “The Derby tops anything you do in racing in the entire world,” he said.

The first time Velez noticed Smarty Jones was last October at Philadelphia Park. Servis’ colt was finishing up a workout while Velez was on the track with another horse.

“He was working real fast,” Velez said. “When he got to the eighth pole, he was low and extended. He was very impressive.”

Smarty Jones, who had yet to race, had recovered from a near-fatal starting-gate injury and was awaiting his first start, which came about a month later. Velez went to Servis the morning of that workout and asked if he could gallop Smarty Jones on a regular basis. Servis gave him the job.

Velez is engaged to Maureen Donnelly, 42, who has been Servis’ assistant trainer since 1999. One of the four horses in Velez’s barn is owned by Donnelly.

“Bobby’s got four rats,” the plain-talking Donnelly said last Tuesday at Philadelphia Park, but later that day, in a race for $7,000 claimers, Velez ran 1-2 with a pair of fillies, and finished third with another filly in a $5,000 claimer.

Velez earned 1% of Spend A Buck’s purses in 1985 -- the Garden State bonus netted him $26,000 -- but it’s not clear how much he will receive for the four-plus months he spent with Smarty Jones. Servis’ 10% on Derby day came to about $580,000. The next day he said that one of the things he would do would be to reward his stablehands.

Velez noted similarities in Smarty Jones with both Eillo and Spend A Buck.

“Eillo was a liver chestnut, and so is Smarty,” Velez said. “That’s my favorite color. There’s something about liver chestnuts. Many of them have that certain look in their eye.”

Spend A Buck became the first Derby winner in 29 years -- since Swaps in 1956 -- to skip the Preakness. There was no Triple Crown bonus in 1985 and Dennis Diaz, who owned Spend A Buck, wanted to go for the $2-million payoff that came with winning the Jersey Derby. The Preakness and the Jersey Derby were scheduled so close together it was impossible for Spend A Buck to run in both.

“Horses like these are very special,” Velez said. “Spend A Buck and Smarty Jones both have big hearts. Just when you think they’ve had enough, they keep coming at you. They’re always able to reach down and come up with something extra.”

Velez said he thinks Smarty Jones, who’s undefeated in seven races, will continue his Triple Crown run in the Preakness.

“I can’t see a horse in there that’s going to beat him,” he said. “It would take a horse with blazing speed like Spend A Buck.”

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The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority has fined Stewart Elliott, Smarty Jones’ jockey, $1,000 for failing to note, when he applied for a license two days before the Derby, that he had pleaded guilty to a felony -- beating up an acquaintance -- in New Jersey in 2001. “That’s a part of his life that he would like to forget,” Servis said. “He’s a homebody [now]. He’s a good guy, and he’s always been there for me.” Elliott, who was married once before, was scheduled to be married this August but has postponed the nuptials until next year. He’s going to leave Philadelphia Park, where he has been the leading rider for four years, and ride at Monmouth Park this summer.... Trainer Nick Zito has postponed a decision about whether The Cliff’s Edge will run in the Preakness. Zito said The Cliff’s Edge will be scratched if a foot abscess can’t be treated.

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Preakness Stakes

Field for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Purse: $1 million (winner’s share -- $650,000). Distance: 1 3/16 miles. Post time: 3: 04 p.m. PDT. TV: Channel 4 (coverage starts at 2 p.m. PDT).

*--* PP HORSE JOCKEY ODDS 1 LION HEART Mike Smith 3-1 2 BORREGO Victor Espinoza 15-1 3 LITTLE MATTH MAN Richard Migliore 50-1 4 THE CLIFF’S EDGE Shane Sellers 8-1 5 SONG OF THE SWORD Jorge Chavez 30-1 6 SIR SHACKLETON Raphael Bejarano 30-1 7 SMARTY JONES Stewart Elliott 8-5 8 IMPERIALISM Kent Desormeaux 5-1 9 EDDINGTON Jerry Bailey 8-1 10 ROCK HARD TEN Gary Stevens 6-1 11 WATER CANNON Ryan Fogelsonger 30-1

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