If there was a match race between Smarty Jones and Barbaro, who do you think would win? Why?

Question

NOTE: Forget about Barbaro's injury in this "DREAM MATCH RACE". If I could answer myself, it would probably be Smarty Jones because he was undefeated with all races accept the Belmont and had the underdog roots and he ended up going down in history. BUT I STILL LOVE BARBARO!!!!!!! Please leave your thoughts.

Answer 1

I have had the chance to see both Smarty Jones and Barbaro, not while racing but in relaxed times, I love them both but I feel Barbaro was much stonger and determined than Smarty Jones.

Answer 2

It seems to me that Smarty Jones has proven himself to be a sounder horse than Barbaro seeing is he is still out there carrying on his bloodline and Barbaro is pushing up the daisys somewhere. I dont know what all of the big fuss about Barbaro and his injury is or was. Its not like he is the first champion to break down in a race. I personally will never forget either Ruffians or Go For Wands breakdowns one in a match race with a Derby winner who she towered over and would have probably beaten, the other giving her all to get her owner a Breeders Cup win. Just so you know, I bet on Barbaro to win the Derby and I bet on Bernardini to beat him in the Preakness. Just because Barbaro broke down people want to deify him like he was the best ever. Well, no one will ever know because he never had the chance to prove it, so leave it alone and let the colt rest.

Answer 3

wow now wouldnt that be a race!!! ya know... if anything i'd hope it'd be a tie, cuz i love both horses to death!!

RIP Barbaro ♥

Answer 4

They both had frustratingly abbreviated careers, for different reasons.

IMO, Barbaro was a much better horse, though, given his superior form on both turf and dirt. And he was undefeated.

Smarty Jones raced against an extremely weak crop that year, and was fairly beaten by essentially a Grade III horse (Birdstone) in the Belmont.

Smarty's owners could've done more to show the horse's real ability (since they claimed he was one of the best ever) by racing him as a four year old, but instead, they retired him after his first loss. So really, he didn't prove much of anything other than being a very good three year old. He won the Derby and Preakness, but so did War Emblem, Funny Cide, Real Quiet, Charismatic, Silver Charm etc. in the past few years.

BTW, there have been many brilliantly talented older horses (Mineshaft, Ghostzapper, etc.) racing in the past few years who simply would have crushed all of these vaunted three year olds in a match race. Older horses often (Cigar was an exception) are overlooked by the general public in favor of  the highly-hyped three year olds.

The trend recently has been to retire notable three year olds as soon as the Triple Crown is over, so there really isn't much data to determine how good these horses really are.

Answer 5

Barbaro's a bigger horse with a bigger stride...  and he finished the Derby faster than Smarty did (granted, Smarty ran on a sloppy track while Barbaro ran on a fast track...  but Barbaro proved he could handle the slop when he ran the Holy Bull (i'm pretty sure that was the race he ran on the sloppy track)).  So I'd say Barbaro...  especially since a match race would come down to an all out sprint to the finish...  it's less tactical and more about flat out running speed.

Answer 6

Barbaro had the tactical speed to be able to take out Smarty Jones.  So the winner of the over-rateds goes to Barbaro.  Who was a very good horse, but a summer campaign against Bernardini would have shown his non super hero side that everyone thinks he had.  People seem to forget that he was all out to beat Sharp Humor a horse that nobody will remeber 10 years from now, aside from those that threw away $12,500 to breed to him this year.

Answer 7

Barbaro. Even though both horses were unwilling to be beaten. Smarty Jones still lost in the Belmont. Now, I'm not saying that Barbaro would've won the Belmont, I'm just saying he is more likely to.

So idk I just think Barbaro. Because he was such a fighter he would give up anything to win! I mean look at the fight he went though for SO long! I know Barbaro would have probably gotten beat at least once in his life but I just could've believe the way it happen.

So... totally Barbaro!♥

-mel

Answer 8

I would probably say Barbaro!! He could run his heart out!!! Not saying that Smarty Jones couldn't!!! But Barbaro won the 2006 Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths! No horse since Assault in 1946 could do that!!!!