LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Although Smarty Jones is rightly the toast of the thoroughbred racing world, his victory in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby didn't silence doubts about his stamina or scare off rivals hoping to get a crack at him in the Preakness Stakes two weeks hence.

Because of the rains that swept through Louisville in the morning and again about an hour and a half before the race, the maintenance crew at Churchill Downs “sealed” – or compressed – the racetrack so that rain would run off rather than penetrating and turning it into 6 inches of goo.

Unfortunately, a “tight” track is often an unfair track, and that appeared to be the case on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Of the nine races on the dirt, all but one went to either a front-runner or a stalker with the ability to stay close to the leader in the early stages of the race – the exact strategy employed by Smarty Jones jockey Stewart Elliott to overtake Lion Heart in midstretch in the Derby. In race after race, closers were able to gain ground late and hit the board, but they weren’t able to catch the leaders once they got to the front in the stretch.

Detecting a track “bias” – a condition that favors a particular style of running – is always tricky, but it became obvious as the day progressed that the Churchill Downs track was favoring speed.

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That offered some excellent opportunities for those who were paying attention. In the fifth race, the Churchill Downs Handicap, for instance, the super sharp Speightstown had an obvious pace edge over odds-on favorite Congaree. The former wired the field and paid $12.80.

But it also put horses that close from the back of the pack at a tremendous disadvantage.

That didn’t escape the notice of the so-called “smart money” that moves the odds on horses off their morning line.

Although Smarty Jones was favored in the betting all day Saturday – probably a result of his obvious talent and the amazing storyline that led him to Kentucky -- as the races ticked by, Lion Heart’s odds began to drop. By post time, the front-running colt, who was 10-1 in the morning line, was the second choice in the betting at 5-1. Those who bet an exacta box with the two favorites – the horse who figured to grab the lead with the most accomplished early presser -- were rewarded with a generous payoff of $65.20.

To their credit, trainers of Kentucky Derby contenders who had to try and make up ground on the front-runners didn’t use the speed-favoring track as an excuse.

But jockey Shane Sellers, who rode The Cliff’s Edge to a fifth-place finish in the Derby, hinted at what was going on when he said that when he swung the winner of the Blue Grass Stakes out to give him a clear path, “he just went to swimming.”

David Flores, who piloted Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champ Action This Day to a sixth-place finish, was a bit more direct.

“I had a good trip and my horse made up a lot of ground, but the track favored the speed horses today and I had to come from so far back,” he said.

Such excuses are naturally the province of losers, who are expected to rationalize their failures. But on Saturday, there is strong evidence that such comments weren’t just sour grapes.

None of this is meant to belittle Smarty Jones’ accomplishment in winning the Kentucky Derby or point the finger at the Churchill Downs maintenance crew.

The colt displayed both his brilliant natural speed and a maturity beyond his years in again securing a perfect stalking position and then pouncing at the top of the stretch. And while some of the other front-runners he inhaled in Arkansas were of suspect quality, there is no doubt that Lion Heart is a serious racehorse who fights tooth-and-nail when a challenge comes from behind.

Likewise, racetrack superintendent Butch Lehr had no choice but to seal the track in light of the advancing storms. If he hadn’t, the track could have deteriorated into a sea of mud that would have been both unsafe and inscrutable to handicappers.

But it does mean that Smarty Jones will have to prove himself all over again in the Preakness Stakes. Given his track record, do you want to bet against him?

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