Smarty Jones to Shuttle to Uruguay

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Champion and dual classic winner Smarty Jones   will shuttle to Uruguay for the 2011 Southern Hemisphere season.

Having spent the majority of his stud career at Robert N. Clay’s Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky., Smarty Jones was relocated to Tarry Bratton’s Ghost Ridge Farms near Felton, Pa., for the 2011 breeding season. Smarty Jones, whose 2011 fee is $10,000, is ranked 15th nationally on this year’s leading sires’ list. His 3-year-old son Rogue Romance is favored in the $300,000 Risen Star Stakes (gr. II) at Fair Grounds Feb. 19.

The 2004 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner, Smarty Jones has sired 106 winners, including four graded or group winners, from 160 starters from his first three crops.

“We are delighted that Smarty Jones will shuttle for the 2011 season,” said Ghost Ridge general manager Carl McEntee, who along with Ricardo Colombo brokered the deal. “With all the positive improvements Smarty Jones has made as a sire over the past year, the timing is perfect.”

Colombo, who initiated the deal, represented Haras Nahuel, Haras La Virginia, and Haras Cuatro Piedras, where Smarty Jones will stand in Uruguay.

“We could not be happier,” Colombo said. “Smarty Jones was an exceptional racehorse. Bringing him here will thrust the Uruguayan breeding program into the international market.”

“The opportunity for his base of mare to again be increased and diversified can only continue to prove the quality that this sensational horse possesses,” McEntee said.

Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality  —I’ll Get Along, by Smile) raced for the late Roy Chapman and his wife, Pat, who was instrumental in Smarty Jones’ return to his native Pennsylvania for this year's breeding season. Pat Chapman was determined for the horse to stay in the United States after several offers came from foreign entities over the past year.

"The Japanese really, really want him," Chapman told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We’ve turned down some nice offers from Japan. I keep saying, ‘No, he’s not leaving the country.’ I’m happy to allow Smarty the opportunity to shuttle. He’s such a good horse and really enjoys his new profession. He will ship to Uruguay at the end of July and be returning before Christmas so all the fans can reconnect before the Northern Hemisphere season starts.”

Smarty Jones, who was trained by John Servis, became the first unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977. He just missed becoming the first Triple Crown winner in more than a quarter century, finishing second to Birdstone   in the 2004 Belmont Stakes (gr. I).