Don't Cry for Smarty Jones!

Or, "Smarty, you broke my hearty."

I realize that there are not likely many readers of my blog from the Horse Racing Community, but humor me, ok? The purest and oldest of all sports is racing. And one of the coolest examples of racing to watch is horse racing. The powerful, majestic, and lovable horse, in the simplest of games -- let's see who can make it to that line first! Smarty Jones was a great story. Last year this Chestnut from Philadelphia Park nearly died after bashing his head on a gate, and this year he wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and raced this past weekend in the Belmont for the third leg of the elusive "Triple Crown," a rare chance to win these three prestigious races within a five week stretch -- hadn't been done in 26 years. I'll admit it... I watched it. And my cheers of "Go Smarty! Go Smarty!" became "No Smarty! No Smarty!"

I'll explain a bit of what happened. Smarty was riding with a bullseye eye on his rear, because everyone figured he would win outright, perhaps by 20 lengths or more, as some estimated... not an outrageous prediction after winning the Preakness by a colossal 11 1/2 lengths. From the gate, two horses pressed Smarty right away, getting him to run faster than he should have. The riders of these two horses basically gave up the race, wearing out their horses in order to tire Smarty out early (both of these horses finished "off the board"). Smarty never calmed down, and pressed to remain ahead of the pack until the final stretch, when a longshot named Birdstone came flying up from the outside, edging out Smarty at the last moment, beating Smarty Jones by a length, and ending Smarty's shot at winning the Triple Crown. The crowd was shocked, I was shocked, the entire city of Philadelphia was shocked, kids were crying, ladies fainting, people offering their condolences like someone just died.

People, I was rooting for Smarty too, but let's not cry about this. Remember two things:

1. Don't forget SMARTY WON THE KENTUCKY DERBY, AND THE PREAKNESS, and came in second in the Belmont! Way to go, Smarty! It's rare for a horse to have that kind of success. He did a good job, and he did Philly proud. It was a good run, and alot of fun.

2. If your affections are so tied to a horse race, or to sports in general (and I speak this as a guy who used to be a sports addict... when the Steelers lost, I'd have a bad week), that you experience heartache or sorrow over a loss, then you need to check yourself. Let your affections be towards God, and Heavenly things, and then we can enjoy things of this earth properly.

Oh, and Birdstone... if you're reading this...

Good race. Congratulations on your Belmont victory!

(snif)