Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview.com

Dryfly won the third renewal of the Smarty Jones Stakes Monday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., but if he has aspirations of jumping on the 2010 Triple Crown trail he’ll have to prove he can go farther than a mile.

The 3-year-old son of Jump Start (A.P. Indy) went right to the front when the gate was sprung and set fractions of 23.35, 47.65 and 1:13.75 for six furlongs as he held a short lead over a gang of other colts lead by Perfect Drive, Don’t Put It Back and Wow Wow Wow.

Dryfly started putting some distance between him and the rest as he rounded the second turn and had a four-length lead at the quarter pole. It appeared he was going to pull off and win by a double-digit margin, but he lost interest at the eighth pole and started swishing his tail when jockey Calvin Borel went to the whip.

Either the colt got bored after he put away the competition or he has a distance problem and may not be a true two-turn horse, although he still won by two-and-a-half lengths. The closers were coming too quickly at him.

The final time for the one-mile race was 1:41.69. Pleasant Storm closed for second, with Kitty’s Turn third and Crider grabbed fourth.

Dryfly was three wins from four lifetime starts and is owned by Charles Cella. He is trained by Lynn Whiting.

The Smarty Jones is named after the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness and went into that year’s Belmont Stakes unbeaten. He lost that race to Birdstone, when he came in second.

The first two winners of the Smarty Jones were Flat Out and Liberty Bull.