Now that the Triple Crown run is over and more than five weeks have passed since the Eight Belles tragedy, I thought it would be a good time to pick the brain of Larry Jones. Thought of by many as not only one of the most talented, but most respected trainers in the sport, Jones gave his take on a few different topics, including Eight Belles, Big Brown, medication issues and this year's Triple Crown.

JS: Now that some time has passed since the Eight Belles tragedy, have things gotten any easier for you?

LJ: Yes, time heals a lot of things in life and it has gotten better. But it is a long ways from being forgotten. We still struggle with it all the time.

JS: Did the outpouring of support from people both inside and outside the industry help you get through it?

LJ: The support really did help a lot. We got hundreds of letters, cards and phone calls, most of them very positive. A lot of people in the business that I didn't even know and I figured didn't even care about me personally came to offer their support. That meant a lot. It was good. You're always going to have a few bad people pointing fingers, but it's that way in every walk of life.

JS: Did the test that proved Eight Belles was steroid-free give you any kind of vindication?

LJ: Yeah. It made a lot of people get off of me. I knew from the start we had done right by her and we went into the race good. The accusations hurt, but this proved that we play the game on the level.

JS: In hindsight, would this tragedy ever make you think twice about entering a filly in the Derby again?

LJ: No. This injury had nothing to do with her being a filly. There is nothing I would do differently. She came into the race perfect. The same thing can happen to any horse galloping in the morning. It was just a very unfortunate situation.

JS: Switching gears a little, I happen to think medication violations are one of the biggest problems in Thoroughbred racing. Do you agree?

LJ: Let me first say that medication issues have changed a lot in the last 30 years - for the better. Kentucky had major medication revisions about five years ago when the Horse Racing Authority took over. They changed a lot of rules and it's getting better all the time. Thirty years ago you could walk into a pharmacy and buy steroids over-the-counter with no problem. That is a felony today. Most people outside the game don't know that. Medication testing has gotten a lot better too. In the 1970's when I first started training Thoroughbreds, there were horses running on all kinds of stuff that you would never even consider today, stuff like elephant juice. That kind of stuff is far behind us today.

JS: With that being said, is there still room to improve?

LJ: It can get better. One of the biggest things I would like is for every state to get on the same page with medication rules. We need a national committee in charge of this. I want to know what is not allowed in New York is also a not allowed in Kentucky, is not allowed in New Jersey and so on. It's going to take somebody stepping up to the plate to say, ‘this is how it's going to be.'

JS: Maybe the June 19 Congressional Subcommittee hearing in Washington D.C. will be the first step. If so, can you take some comfort in the fact that the Eight Belles tragedy was the catalyst for this?

LJ: Absolutely. I believe the good Lord would not have taken this horse away without something good coming from it. She did not give her life for no reason. Even though the PETA people were barking up the wrong tree, I would like to think this was the catalyst that will bring about change.

JS: As a trainer, does it bother you when you see some of your peers repeatedly getting away with medication violations?

LJ: It really does. It aggravates the heck out of me, especially when they take away some of my big clients. They want to win so badly that they will push the envelope so hard just to get results. It's very annoying.

JS: Do we need stricter penalties for offenders?

LJ: I'm very much in favor of harsher penalties. As far as I'm concerned , it should be three strikes and you're out. Now, I do know that accidents happen. There are some instances where trainers are giving horses medication that is legal to train with and illegal to race with. Sometimes that can get mixed up. But for repeat offenders, it should not be tolerated. My hope is that when these rules finally get in place it will increase win percentages even more for someone like me, who has never had a violation.

JS: Switching gears again, it seems that many people were turned off by the things Rick Dutrow Jr. said during Big Brown's run through the Triple Crown. As a fellow trainer, do you have an opinion?

LJ: Those type of comments do not draw my attention favorably. Rick is entitled to say what he wants, but John Servis is a friend of mine and I didn't appreciate his comments about Smarty Jones. As far as I'm concerned, (Servis) did a better job with Smarty than Rick did with Big Brown. And (Dutrow's) comments came back to bite him in the butt.

JS: Several people have said that Dutrow's comments made them not want Big Brown to win the Triple Crown. What about you?

LJ: I was rooting for us not to have a Triple Crown winner. He is a very nice horse but the connections rubbed people the wrong way. Plus, I didn't agree with him being compared to Secretariat and horses like that. I think if Big Brown would have raced against Street Sense, Curlin and Hard Spun last year he would have found things are hell of a lot more difficult than he did this year. Put it this way, he's a talented horse, but I've trained horses that raced against tougher, in my opinion.

JS: A lot has been made of why Big Brown lost the Belmont. What is your opinion?

LJ: It's not my deal to second guess somebody else's horse. I wasn't around the horse so I don't know.  Maybe he just had an off day. I can't blame the jockey for the loss though. He is a push button horse and just didn't have it that day, for whatever reason.

JS: What about easing the horse in the stretch?

LJ: I don't think he should have done that.  I think he should have allowed the horse to finish the race on his own terms. It was not handled well. But then again, not a whole lot was handled well through this run. It was par for the course with these connections.

If you haven't seen the latest comments from Rick Dutrow Jr. regarding Smarty Jones and what he feels was questionable training by John Servis leading up to the 2004 Belmont Stakes, here they are:

"I think maybe the way they trained that horse for that race going up to the Belmont had a lot to do with him getting beat," Dutrow said. "I was at my house and they showed a flash where Smarty Jones was breezing for his Belmont race. He did it at Philadelphia Park on a sloppy, sealed track. It just blew my mind away."

Dutrow also said: "I also don't think he needed to win the way he did in the Preakness (by 11 1/2 lengths)." Big Brown, he said, had the Preakness well in hand and Kent Desormeaux "grabbed a hold and he knew we still had another race to go through.

"I think that the connections of Smarty Jones just were not smart in order to get their job done for the Belmont. They should have played it a lot safer, a lot better."

I was listening to that May 28 media teleconference when Dutrow made those remarks. Like many, I was pretty shocked. The following day I decided to give Servis a call. Always a class act, his comments were what I expected.

"I'm not offended," Servis said from his barn at Philly Park. "I know the situation he's in and how much pressure he is under. Ricky has a tendency to talk before he thinks."

I asked Servis if he did indeed work Smarty on a sloppy, sealed track the week before the Belmont, just as Dutrow contended.

"That is inaccurate," Servis said. "It was four years ago, so I guess I could have forgot. But I had someone go back and look it up and all of his works were listed on a fast track. So he's wrong about that."

And what about Smarty winning the Preakness by more than he had to?

"It's easy to throw stones," Servis continued. "But Smarty had his ears pricked near the wire and he was pretty much being eased. As far as I'm concerned, he could have won by 20 lengths."

After hearing Dutrow's insensitive comments, I wondered if Servis was rooting for Big Brown to lose the Belmont.

"Not at all. The industry could use a Triple Crown winner," Servis said. "I'd like to see him win. It would be good for everyone.

"If he is healthy, I can't see him losing. But with feet (problems) you never know. I can tell you one thing, if those cracks were to happen a day or two before the race he wouldn't be running. No way. So if I were Rick, I would be at church every day praying he stayed healthy."

Servis, who says he has one 2-year-old son of Smarty in his barn and will be getting a couple more shortly, also talked about his memories of the disappointing 2004 Belmont.

"I've never really lost sleep over it," he said. "I thought it was unfortunate because we had the best horse. More than anything, I really felt bad for Chappy (owner Roy Chapman). He died less than a year later and it would have been a great swan song for him."

Always good to hear from Servis. A class act.

So you are going to try to beat Big Brown huh? Me too. Short of hitting the superfecta or Pick 4, there is no way to make any significant money in this race if Big Brown wins.

With that in mind, here is one longshot to consider in the Belmont: Anak Nakal.

Anak Nakal? I know, he hasn't been better than fifth in four races this year and on paper, doesn't look like he even belongs on the same track as Big Brown. But upon further review, there are a couple angles here. Just ask trainer Nick Zito.

You may remember a little horse that Zito trained four years again named Birdstone. He limped into the Belmont off a fifth-place finish in the Blue Grass and a flat eighth-place showing in the Kentucky Derby. He then went off at 36-1 in the Belmont and disappointed racing fans all across the nation when he overtook Smarty Jones in the final sixteenth to deny a Triple Crown.

"I'm a fan of racing first and foremost," Zito said when asked what he recalled most about that day. "I have been following it on a daily basis since I was a teenager. I'm big into the history and tradition of it. So as a fan, I felt a little funny when Birdstone won. I was happy for us, but it was a little weird.

"But at the same time I had tried to win that race so many times and was second five or six times before. (Smarty Jones' trainer John Servis) made it a little easier for me because he was so classy after the race. He made me realize it was a competition and we are all trying to win."

Zito says there are similarities between Anak Nakal and Birdstone.

"They both were better as 2-year-olds. Birdstone won the Champagne and Anal Nakal won the Jockey Club. Birdstone was eighth, not 18^th in the Derby. Anak Nakal was seventh, not 17^th in the Derby, if you know what I mean. They are both tough, little horses that needed to improve going into the Belmont."

Anaka Nakal turned in a handy :46.68 half-mile work May 26 and Zito says he is pleased with his training since the Derby.

Perhaps the biggest omen for Anak Nakal is his sire, Victory Gallop. You may recall that it was 10 years ago that Victory Gallop denied Real Quiet's Triple Crown by coming from four lengths back at the top of the stretch to win by a nose.

"We know (Anak Nakal) will love the mile and a half," Zito said. "His daddy won this race. He will run all day and he proved that in the Derby when he kept coming."

The thought of Anak Nakal improving so much that he will beat Big Brown is a reach. Zito knows this. But he also knows another thing:

"A mile and a half is tough. It changes everything. You can't take anything for granted in this game."

The final results of the poll are in!

Surprisingly, Point Given won by a large margin, garnering more than 30% of the votes. I was a bit surprised, not that you guys voted him the winner, but that he won by so much. I bet that if we took this poll again in six months, Curlin's votes would go way up!

Thanks to everyone who voted.

Since we had a good response to that poll, here's another one that we can have some fun with:

Who was the best horse since 1979 to fall one leg short of the Triple Crown?

It has happened 10 times in the last 30 years, most recently with Smarty Jones in 2004. I'll give you my top three and you guys can cast your vote below.

3. Smarty Jones: He was a length short of going undefeated for his career and may have been the best horse since Cigar (although I would argue Point Given). I'm still not convinced that he couldn't have run as a 4-year-old, but he is a true champion nonetheless.

2. Sunday Silence: Although he could not get the elusive Belmont against the great Easy Goer, he beat him three other times as a 3-year-old, including the BC Classic. Was 9-5-0 from 14 starts and had a victory as a 4-year-old, which gives him the nod over Smarty.

1. Spectacular Bid: Take a look at the PPs. He was a man amongst boys. Was 26-2-1 from 30 starts and won 10 stakes in a row before the Derby, most by a large margin. I don't think there is anyone who would argue that ‘Bid should have been a Triple Crown winner. Proves how hard it is (and how much luck you need). His 4-year-old year (Nine consecutive graded stakes wins) might never be duplicated.