Tarry Bratton is standing outside the stallion barn on a sun-splashed late October morning when his cell phone trills. Scanning the caller ID, his eyebrows arch. After a brief conversation a huge smile bursts across Bratton’s face.
“We got him.”
“Him” would be Smarty Jones, the legendary chestnut racehorse that captured the imagination of the nation back in 2004 with his run at the Triple Crown. After a couple of months of negotiations with Three Chimneys Farm, Bratton was bringing the Pennsylvania-bred back home to Ghost Ridge Farms near York, Pa.
“Smarty will be great for us and great for the breeding industry in Pennsylvania,” Bratton related. “He fits right in with the solid group of stallions we’ve acquired.”
Have they ever.
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