I WANT A HORSE JUST LIKE DAD MARRIED:

Riding high: Smarty Jones story a true Hollywood tale as Chapman family revels in good fortune (Kevin Paul Dupont, May 14, 2004, Boston Globe)

The Chapmans — Pat and ‘‘Chappy’’ among friends and family — today are the somewhat unsuspecting senior citizens sitting tallest in the saddle of all thoroughbred horse racing. Their sensational Kentucky Derby-winning colt, Smarty Jones, tomorrow afternoon will tackle the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the prestigious Triple Crown, and in three weeks could total career winnings of more than $15 million, making him by far the biggest money-winner in the history of North American horse racing.

All this from a 3-year-old chestnut colt:

* Who shattered his skull and nearly died less than a year ago, months before running his first race, in a freak gate accident while training here at Philadelphia Park — a humble, if not backwater Bucks County facility some 20 miles northeast of Center City.

* Whose first trainer, Bob Camac, was murdered, along with his wife, while sitting on his front porch — shot by the wife’s son, reportedly in a dispute over money and track-related business.

* Whose owners, because of 78-year old Roy Chapman’s health issues, sold their 100-acre horse farm near Bensalem and only a couple of years ago stood but weeks from fully divesting their breeding and racing interests.

* Whose aging jockey, a high school dropout and former Suffolk Downs noname (for the record: Stewart Elliott), once quit the sport for more than a year, his weight ballooning beyond the saddle after suffering a back injury.

* Whose current trainer, West Virginia-born John Servis -- in 20-plus years of prepping charges for the track -- had never had a horse in the Kentucky Derby.

It is a tale that even the 62-year-old Pat Chapman, who in 1976 met her foxhunting, car dealing husband in one of his auto showrooms, figures borders on fantasy.

"It really is pretty incredible, isn't it," she said, shortly before departing late this week for Baltimore. "It's whatever you want to call it, I guess . . . a fairy tale, a fantasy . . . it's just awesome."

Nice to have some real horse racing excitement, now if we could just revive boxing.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 14, 2004 8:59 AM