Smarty Jones remains a huge fan favorite, and after proving he can sire consistently good sales weanlings and yearlings, our Kentucky Derby/Preakness hero is now working to show that he can sire successful racehorses, too. Smarty Jones's first foals are now four-year-olds, with a fresh crop of three-year-olds on the scene and a third crop of two-year-olds on deck. This makes it a good time to see what bloodlines are proving the most successful with him.
As of March, 2010, Smarty Jones is represented by 6 stakes horses including 3 stakes winners. His stars are Backtalk, a G2 winner at 2 in 2009, out of a mare by Affirmed, second dam by Baldski; Sarah Cataldo, a stakes winner at Delaware in 2009 out of a mare by Smarten, second dam by Hagley; and La Equivocada, a Grade 3 winner at 2 in Puerto Rico out of a mare by Nureyev, second dam by Graustark. He has 3 other stakes-placed runners - G1-placed Be Smart (dam by Unbridled/Storm Cat), G3-placed Smart Coco (Mt. Livermore/Shadeed), and stakes-placed Rescue Plan (Boundary/ Affirmed).
This shows the wide range of bloodlines he's been working with. So far he's had no repeat broodmare sires among his stakes horses, but Affirmed appears as the dam's sire in Backtalk and second dam's sire in Rescue Plan. Another Raise a Native-line sire, Unbridled appears as the dam's sire in Be Smart. These all represent a return to Smarty's own sireline of Raise a Native through Mr. Prospector, but perhaps significantly, both Affirmed and Unbridled represent taller branches of that sireline.
Smarty Jones stands a muscular, well balanced 16.0 hands but can sire foals that are on the small side. When inspecting his first several crops, we noticed that the most impressive ones were out of large mares representing sirelines that tended to produce big horses, like Seattle Slew and Deputy Minister. For a breed-to-race owner, size may not be an issue but for a commercial breeder, getting a bigger foal is key to bigger profits. Smarty can put the rest of the goods where they need to be; he's well known for putting his own great hindquarter on his offspring.
To get a larger sample of Smarty Jones's success stories, we'll look at the pedigrees of all his winners. The sireline that seems to really be hitting with Smarty is that of Northern Dancer. Nureyev (dam's sire of La Equivocada) and Boundary (dam's sire of Rescue Plan) are both Northern Dancer-line sires, as are Baldski, Storm Cat and Shadeed, so Northern Dancer appears in 4 of his 6 stakes horses. Since Smarty Jones's sire Elusive Quality and grandsire Gone West have both done very well with Northern Dancer-line mares, and since Smarty was not bred on that cross, we expected he'd cross very favorably with Northern Dancer, and this is definitely proving to be the case.
So far, the Deputy Minister branch is represented by the most winners (6), including 4 out of mares by Deputy Minister himself and 2 more by his sons Silver Deputy and French Deputy. Another branch of this line that is well represented is that of Nureyev, dam's sire of La Equivocada. There are 2 other winners out of mares by Nureyev's son Theatrical (IRE). There are also 2 winners from Storm Cat mares, and 1 by his sire Storm Bird; and winners out of mares by Danzig and his son Boundary. He also has winners out of Northern Dancer-line mares by Alhaarth, Sadler's Wells, Dixie Brass and Sword Dance (IRE).
Broodmares from the male line of Nasrullah are also showing strength for Smarty Jones, especially those descending from Seattle Slew and Blushing Groom. Since one of Smarty's most prominent linebreeding patterns is his 3 strains of Bold Ruler and 2 more of Bold Ruler's sire Nasrullah, this makes sense, going back to one of his genetic strengths. All told Smarty Jones has sired 7 winners from Seattle Slew-line mares: 3 from daughters of Seattle Slew, 3 more out of mares by A.P. Indy, Capote, Slew City Slew, and 1 out of a mare by A.P. Indy's son Pulpit.
Seattle Slew descends from Family 13, which is the same family as several members of Smarty Jones's pedigree: Elusive Quality, Mr. Prospector, and also Tourbillon, who is doubled up in Smarty Jones's granddam Don't Worry Bout Me. Seattle Slew's dam carries the sister act of Striking and Busher, both bred on the important War Admiral/La Troienne cross. He has traditionally worked well in pedigrees with more of this background. Smarty Jones has 2 crosses of War Admiral/La Troienne, but most importantly, he descends in direct female line from her granddaughter Striking, so mares carrying Seattle Slew should and have worked well with Smarty Jones.
The other Nasrullah line that Smarty Jones has worked well with is that of Blushing Groom, responsible for 2 of his winners out of mares by Mt. Livermore (Smart Coco) and Runaway Groom. He's also got a winner out of a mare by Nasrullah-line sire Cozzene.
Smarty Jones has 6 winners from Raise a Native-line mares. In addition to the 2 stakes horses from mares by Affirmed (Backtalk) and Unbridled (Be Smart), he has winners out mares by 2 different sons of Forty Niner (Ide and End Sweep), and another out of a mare by Quiet American, from the same Fappiano line as Unbridled. He also has a winner out of a daughter of Seeking the Gold. All of the 6 winners from Mr. Prospector-line mares have inbreeding to Mr. Prospector. Backtalk is linebred to Raise a Native 5x4 through Mr. Prospector and Exclusive Native.
Two other winners descended from 2 other lines descending from Raise a Native's sire Native Dancer, through Halling (by Diesis (GB) - Sharpen Up - Atan) and Darn That Alarm (by Jig Time).
Smarty Jones has 5 winners from Turn-to line mares by Smarten (Sarah Cataldo), Sunday Silence, Kris S., Devil's Bag and Stop the Music. Smarten is through Turn-to's son Cyane. The other 4 come from Hail to Reason's branch, with Kris S. via Roberto, and Halo accounting for Sunday Silence and Devil's Bag; and Stop the Music as a direct son of Hail to Reason.
A rather uniquely successful cross is that with Holy Bull mares. Smarty Jones's first crop included 2 foals out of Holy Bull mares and both have become winners. Holy Bull is interesting because his sire Great Above was sired by a son of Rough'n Tumble and out of a mare by Intentionally. This is the reverse cross as what's found in Smarty Jones's dam's sire Smile, whose sire In Reality was by Intentionally and out of a mare by Rough'n Tumble. Holy Bull also has a cross of Grey Dawn II, whose sire Herbager is found in Smarty Jones's third dam Stolen Base, so Holy Bull has a unique set of ancestors that are very similar to Smarty's dam, I'll Get Along.
It's possible Smarty Jones could work well with mares carrying a second cross of In Reality. He bears a strong resemblance to that part of his pedigree, but because of the size issue, it would be better to stick with bigger branches of the male line. Tiznow, with In Reality on Seattle Slew and doubled to Northern Dancer has the right bloodlines as well as the larger size to be a potentially dynamic cross.
Smarty Jones also sired a pair of winners out of mares from the Ribot line, by Graustark and Pleasant Colony. Graustark also appears in Elusive Quality's dam through Hero's Honor, out of the outstanding Graustark daughter Glowing Tribute.
One winner each came from mares by Clever Trick (by Icecapade - Nearctic), Fly So Free (by Time For a Change - Damascus), Hold Your Peace (by Speak John - Prince John - Princequillo), Honey Jay (by Double Jay - Balladier), and Lord At War (ARG) (by General (FR) - Brigadier Gerard - Queens Hussar - March Past - Petition - Fair Trial).
By Anne Peters