Smarty Jones to appear at Parx on Labor Day

Smarty Jones Day at Parx Racing is scheduled for Sept. 2, Labor Day. There will be a special guest this year — Smarty Jones.

The 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner left his backstretch home in trainer John Servis’s barn at what was then called Philadelphia Park in August 2004. He went to stud in Kentucky, came back to two Pennsylvania farms, then to Kentucky again and, in late December, to Equistar Farm in Annville, Pa.

If all the details can be worked out, the plan is for Smarty Jones to parade sometime during the race card on the day named in his honor which culminates with the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes. Smarty is about a 2-hour van ride from Parx in Lebanon County.

The great horse and the race named for him will be part of a live television show that day (4:30 p.m.-6 p.m.) on PHL17 which became the home of the weekly “Let’s Go Racing” Parx horse racing show (10 a.m. Saturdays) in January.