Horse Racing: Smarty Jones Attempts American Triple Crown

On Saturday, a few hours after the Derby, tens of millions of TV viewers across the Atlantic will watch Smarty Jones attempt to become the first horse since 1978 to win the Triple Crown of Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. If Smarty Jones wins, his owner, Roy Chapman, will be one of the most popular men in American sport. The horse's trainer and jockey also have a tale to tell. It is one horse story that really takes the Seabiscuit. And the movie may pan out something like this:

Pre-titles sequence: Roy and Pat Chapman are at Aintree watching their horse, Uncle Merlin, leading the field in the 1990 Grand National. The horse falls. Roy is a car dealer. He met Pat when she came to buy a car off him. They have just started owning and breeding horses. We see them at their farm.

'Some day we are going to do this and some day we are going to do that,' says Pat.

'I think we ought to call it Someday Farm,' says Roy.

Titles: Smarty Jones - America's Horse , also starring Gary Stevens as Gary Stevens and Steve Cauthen as Steve Cauthen.

Cut to a murder scene. The back porch of a house in Oldhams Township, NJ. Bobby Camac, a prominent racehorse trainer, and his wife Maryann have been shot dead by Bobby's stepson. Camac trained for the Chapmans.

Cut to funeral. Roy Chapman is clearly very ill; he has emphysema. 'Bobby getting killed has taken the starch out of Roy,' says one trainer, Mark Reid, to another, John Servis.

Cut to Roy and Pat selling all their horses because of Roy's failing health, and Camac's murder. They keep one, who was born on February 28 2001, the birthday of Pat's mother, Mildred Jones, and named after her childhood nickname, 'Smarty'. He is a runty little thing. Reid recommends that Servis replaces Camac as the Chapmans' trainer.

Cut to a small man drinking on his own. The same small man pleading guilty to two charges of assault as well as criminal mischief involving a former girlfriend. We learn his name is Stewart Elliott, and he is a jockey.

Two years later: Smarty Jones rears up and hits his head on an iron bar running across the top of the starting gate. Assistant trainer Maureen Donnelly runs over. 'You can't even see his eyeball. There's just flesh coming out from the inside of his eye socket. He looks like something out of a horror movie.'

Cut to New Jersey Equine Clinic in Clarksburg. 'We've nicknamed him Quasimodo,' says the vet.

Cut to the paddock at Philadelphia Park on November 22 2003. A squirrel approaches Smarty Jones, who jumps in the air with all four feet off the ground. He turns his body while in the air and lashes out at the squirrel. He lands on all fours, he is calm, he goes out and wins the nursery by 15 lengths.

Cut to owner and trainer chatting. Roy Chapman is in a wheelchair and on oxygen. 'Do whatever you have to, just get me to the Derby,' he says.

Montage of Smarty Jones winning four races, including the Rebel and the Arkansas Stakes.

Cut to trainer Servis standing outside Smarty Jones's horsebox. 'You know, I talk to him like he's a human being. I just tell him how good he is. I tell him how much he has changed my life. I try to keep him happy and I tell him to just keep telling me what you want, buddy.'

Cut to Smarty Jones doing a phenomenal workout late last month before the Kentucky Derby.

'They look at his pedigree and knock him, and he just keeps kicking butt. What else do they want him to do?' says work-rider Willie Martinez.

'All I know is that after watching Smarty Jones work today, we're all in trouble,' says rival trainer Bob Baffert.

'Man, I wish the Derby was tomorrow,' says Servis.

Cut to Chapman and Servis chatting about how the latter can get to the winner's enclosure if Smarty wins.

'Let me tell you something - you ain't carrying me across that damn track in front of 150,000 people,' says Chapman.

Kentucky Derby Day, May 1: It is pouring with rain. Smarty Jones is 4-1 favourite.

'Chap, whatever happens, we've had a great ride,' says Servis.

'Absolutely,' says Chapman.

Smarty Jones wins by two-and-three-quarter lengths. 'We want Chap. We want Chap,' sing the crowd.

Cut to Smarty Jones winning the Preakness by a record 11-and-a-half lengths two weeks after Kentucky. Afterwards, in the winner's enclosure, jockey Stewart Elliott (the character charged with assault earlier in the film) says: 'He's just unbelievable. He just keeps getting better, this son of a gun. I mean, he just did it so easy.'

'Entering the stretch, I knew I had another gear,' says Gary Stevens, rider of the runner-up. 'But the other horse had about four more gears. We could be seeing history in the making here. That horse is as good as any I've ever seen, and I've seen some good ones, and I was on a good one today. Smarty really reminded me of Secretariat, the way he pulled away.'

'He came through for America. I'm so impressed with his effort,' says Servis. 'I knew this was the toughest race he was going to be in in a long time. And he brought it. He brought it big time.'

Cut to the build-up for the Belmont. 'I can see him blowing the field away,' says Steve Cauthen. 'I feel good about the Smarty Jones team. It takes a great team. You need to have confidence in each other going into that last race. Apparently they're gelling together and are on the same page.'

Cut to Sheikh Mohammed trying to buy the horse. 'If we sold the horse for five-plus million, what would we do differently in our life?' says Pat Chapman, putting the phone down. 'We're all having a ball with him. And he keeps Bob with us. His legacy goes on through our horse.'

Finale: Saturday June 5. The Belmont, New York. Smarty Jones is 1-3 favourite. If he wins, he will be the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. If he wins, he will join Seattle Slew as the only undefeated Triple Crown winner. If he wins, he will be the most successful racehorse in America's history.

We shall see on Saturday.