Smarty Jones on his way back to stud in Pennsylvania

Dual classic winner Smarty Jones is returning to stud in Pennsylvania for 2019, according to the stallion's majority owner, Pat Chapman.

The 17-year-old son of Elusive Quality is now at Haras La Concordia Farm in Uruguay, where he is completing a two-year shuttling deal with Calumet Farm, where Smarty Jones has been standing since 2016.

When the stallion completes his southern hemisphere tour of duty, he'll return to Rodney Eckenrode's Equistar Farm near Annville in Pennsylvania, which is about four miles from Penn National Race Course.

"Several of the Pennsylvania breeders have been talking with me the past couple of years about bringing him back," Chapman said. "Working with Calumet has been fabulous, but the Kentucky breeders really are not interested. Because so many people in Pennsylvania have been asking me about him, I thought now was the time to do it."

Chapman bred and raced Smarty Jones with her late husband, Roy ['Chappy'], under the name of their Someday Farm. He won eight of his nine starts, which included consecutive victories in the Southwest Stakes, Rebel Stakes, Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness Stakes.

He missed sweeping the Triple Crown by a length to Birdstone in the Belmont Stakes. For winning the Rebel, Arkansas Derby, and the Kentucky Derby, Smarty Jones earned a $5 million bonus, which pushed his career earnings to $7,613,155.

Smarty Jones initially retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm, where he stood from 2005-09, and then was relocated to Pennsylvania, first standing at Ghost Ridge Farms for one season and then Northview PA from 2011-15. Including this year, the stallion has shuttled to Uruguay for four seasons.

The stallion has been a useful sire with 29 black-type winners worldwide, including 12 who won Graded/Group stakes and three champions. His Australian-bred daughter Better Life earned four championships in Singapore and earned more than $1.6 million, and another daughter in Uruguay named Bamba Y Bamba was that country's champion two-year-old filly last year after winning the Gran Premio Polla de Potrancas, the Gran Premio Criterium, and two other stakes races.

Graded stakes winners in the US include Grade 1 winner Centralinteligence and Graded winners Backtalk, Cary Street, Old Time Hockey, Res Judicata, and Rogue Romance.

Chapman owns Smarty Jones with ten other partners, but she retained 77.5 per cent ownership in her star. While she wishes the stallion was getting more support, Chapman said her experience with him as a stallion has been largely positive.

"I have done well with the few mares I've bred to him and had an awful lot of fun," Chapman said. "They've paid the bills and kept me in this business. He really is much more of a regional sire, so I think this move will help."

Smarty Jones will stand for $3,500 in 2019.

for all the latest news from America