It's hard to believe that 21 years have passed since the magical run of Smarty Jones captured the attention of not just racing fans, but sports fans around the world in the spring of 2004.
It's even harder to believe that during those two decades, one of the biggest phenoms ever to grace the sport had yet to be enshrined at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. That absence will be rectified Aug. 1 as the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Planning to be in attendance are Pat Chapman, who bred and raced the horse alongside her late husband, Roy, under the name Someday Farm, trainer John Servis, and jockey Stewart Elliott. Meanwhile, Smarty Jones himself will be celebrating the occasion just over 300 miles southwest of the ceremony with his typical routine of eating grass and running around his field at Rodney and Sharon Eckenrode's Equistar Training and Breeding near Annville, Pa.
"I'm so glad he's going to get into the Hall of Fame while he's here, Mrs. Chapman's here," said Rodney Eckenrode. "It's such a big thing for her and John (Servis) and the people who were involved."
Eckenrode will also be in attendance for the induction ceremony as Equistar has played an important role in the son of Elusive Quality's life, having been his home since late 2018. The superstar Pennsylvania-bred is still going strong at 24, showing some speed as he zoomed around his paddock the morning of July 29 when BloodHorse visited with him.
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"For a horse that's been breeding a lot of years, he still does well," Eckenrode said about his popularity with Pennsylvania breeders. "He's amazing. He's still very sound, very much about his job. He's always been a horse that's good at getting his mares settled. He'll get you a nice horse."
The farm will celebrate the milestone achievement Aug. 9 with an "Equistar Summer Celebration" from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. Fans are invited to celebrate the newly minted Hall of Famer by meeting Smarty Jones, some of his connections, and Equistar's other stallions: Brody's Cause and Zozos .
That "Smarty Party" is likely to be a busy affair as his fan base still remains massive after all these years.
"He sometimes gets more mail than we do; whether it's Christmas cards, birthday cards, boxes of treats or peppermints," Eckenrode said. "We've been fortunate to meet a lot of nice people who come to visit him."
Many of those visitors are from his home state, where he left his mark both on the track and in the legislature. Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell was quoted by Steve Haskin in a 2018 BloodHorse article giving credit for the state's passage of slot machines in July of 2004.
"As Smarty caught fire, and it hit home, he absolutely captured the imagination of the legislature," the governor said. "All of a sudden, horse racing was big in Pennsylvania, and it's not an exaggeration to say that Smarty got us the extra votes that we needed down the stretch, and that his tremendous run helped us pass the law."
That law has had a significant impact on racing within the state as all the Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks in the state have slot machines on-site, helping to generate purse money. Because of his contributions, state senator Chris Gebhard will be awarding Smarty Jones with a Senate Citation at the Summer Celebration.
"It's a big deal for Pennsylvania," Eckenrode said. "He's been amazing for racing in the Mid-Atlantic region. He's hugely responsible for Pennsylvania getting slot machines."
However, Smarty Jones' popularity extends far beyond Pennsylvania. Among his regular visitors are a couple from Alaska, who Eckenrode said sometimes travel two or three times a year to see the champion. Eckenrode also mentioned a man who traveled from Japan to the 2023 Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Park and journeyed across the country to meet Smarty Jones.
"We've had people just walk up to his stall and start crying," Eckenrode said. "The thing about this horse that most people don't realize is that he's their sports hero. It's not a professional athlete: it's Smarty Jones."
Equistar Training and Breeding
One of those fans from 2004 was Eckenrode himself, who at the time had just purchased his farm in Pennsylvania.
"We definitely followed him," Eckenrode said. "The frenzy was everywhere; you couldn't help but follow it. It was an amazing ride."
Eckenrode came from a show background with Arabian horses. As Equistar got started with that mission in mind, its location just a few miles from Penn National Race Course opened up new business opportunities.
"We started doing some layups and breaking for Penn National people," Eckenrode recalled on what got them into breeding Thoroughbreds. "You follow them to the races and kind of get addicted. We followed some of the colts that we started, and I said, 'You know, I'd like to have a couple of these.'"
Eckenrode's experience with Arabians included breeding, which he then transitioned to the Thoroughbreds. Equistar stood their first stallion in 2018 when Crown of Thorns moved in from Woodford Thoroughbreds in Florida. The next year, Smarty Jones joined the roster.
"I always had a passion for the Thoroughbred horse, and I'm glad this is the path we took because it's been amazing," Eckenrode said. "(Smarty Jones) is a tremendous horse, and there's nothing seeing him out in this field every day. We just can't thank Mrs. Chapman enough for the opportunity and she has been nothing but fantastic. They don't come any better. She's a great lady."
Several other stallions have come and gone, like Airoforce , Uncle Vinny , and Poseidon's Warrior , but Eckenrode said they prefer to keep a smaller number of stallions to properly match the mare population within the state. According to the Jockey Club, the United States foal crop has declined from over 40,000 in 1990 to an estimated 16,675 in 2024. The number of mares bred to Pennsylvania stallions has decreased from over 1,000 in 2004 to 439 last year.
"There is a definite shortage of mares in the region here in Pennsylvania," Eckenrode said. "I wish (Smarty Jones) was breeding 50-100 a year, but with the commercial market, I think everyone wants the new splash in the pan-type deal and they forget about these older great horses that preserve some of the very best blood our breed has to offer."
Equistar has two of those new splashes in dual grade 1-winning millionaire Brody's Cause , who moved from Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky ahead of the 2023 breeding season, and grade 3 winner, grade 1-placed millionaire Zozos , who just finished his first season at stud.
"Brody seemed to show up everywhere," Eckenrode said. "(His offspring) are a little bit dual-purpose, too. They'll run on grass and dirt, which is nice. That's going back to (the stallion's sire) Giant's Causeway, I believe.
"(Zozos is a) really nice horse, I'm excited about him moving forward. He was really well received. We got a lot of really nice mares to him; mares that made anywhere from 200 to 500 thousand. He's going to get some nice opportunities."
It's horses like Smarty Jones that can help make a difference in the breeding industry as it helps bring new interest from outside the industry, potentially creating new players in the industry. The number of mares bred in Pennsylvania rose in 2005 following Smarty Jones' success and did not fall below the 2004 number until 2013. That bucked the national trend, which saw a 39% decline in foal crop over the same time period.
Eckenrode is proud to have a faithful group of clients who have supported all of Equistar's stallions over the last seven years.
"I'm real pleased with the amount of returning clientele we get," Eckenrode said. "We try and do a really good job for them."
