by GABRIEL MORENCY

When Smarty Jones breaks out of the gate this Saturday at New York's Belmont Park, he will be looking to become horse racing's first Triple Crown winner since Seattle Slew and Affirmed's back-to-back wins in 1977 and 1978. As Smarty tries to complete what only 11 horses have ever accomplished in racing history, his story is much more than just prize money and lengths of victory.

He may have descended from studs like Secretariat, Count Fleet and Mr. Prospector, but there have been no silver spoons in his or his handlers' lives. Not unless an iron bar that fractured Smarty's skull or the bullets that killed his trainer and wife count. Smarty was a lot closer to the big stable in the sky than winning a Triple Crown after racking his head against a starting gate as a two-year-old.

Trainer Bobby Camac, who could only have dreamed of a run like this, was killed with his wife Maryann by his stepson in December 2001. His jockey, Toronto-born Stewart Elliott, is a recovering alcoholic with an assault rap for trying to open a bottle of wine against another man's head and who may or may not have struck his wife. And you thought jockeys weren't professional athletes?!!

Elliott was also the first rider in 25 years to win the Kentucky Derby on his first mount. Smarty's owner, Roy Chapman, is battling emphysema and looks more like 107 rather than the 77-year-old that he is. Throw in the fact that Smarty has never been beaten in eight attempts, and you have a story that Quentin Tarantino couldn't make up.

In a world in which professional athletes have become known as greedy, self-centred egotists who are more interested in scoring endorsement deals and shooting their limousine drivers than they are in winning championships or giving back to the communities in which they work and live, it's not surprising that Smarty Jones is not only the biggest story in sports but also the most popular.

Nobody outside of Canada cares about the Stanley Cup. The Lakers winning the NBA Finals has become a forgone conclusion - the league and its refs have and will see to that. Major League Baseball has gotten so far removed from reality that they were willing to slap Spider-Man's face on the freaking bases for a paltry $3.6-million (U.S.). Imagine what they would do for $36-mil?

Somewhere along the line, someone on Team Jones will fall into the trappings that fame and fortune have laid out before them and do something that reminds us that no matter how much we wish for something or someone to be righteous and pure, they're not. We just want them to be. But though the road to Hell may have been paved with good intentions, Smarty Jones need not worry. Not even the devil himself could catch this horse.

Flaming out

If there's any justice in the world of sports, then surely the Calgary Flames will prevail over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup finals. The Flames personify what Canadian hockey is all about. They crash. They bang. They fight. They grow cool-looking beards!! What's not to like?

Unfortunately for the Flames, the finals are not a beauty pageant in which the Cup is awarded to the team which most looks the part. The Flames have succeeded in forcing Tampa to change the way they play the game but are not getting enough scoring opportunities for their efforts. Look for Tampa Bay to open things up and play a desperate brand of hockey on their home ice. They can't go back to Calgary down 3-2 and they know it.

They won't. Tampa will win games 5 and 6, giving the Lightning their first in Stanley Cup in franchise history.

It's too bad. God only knows what the Flames Girls would have done in victory!! (www.flamesgirls.com)

Sports Rage with Gabriel Morency is vented weeknights 11 p.m.-2 a.m. on TEAM 990 AM. This column appears bi-weekly. Comments: sportsrage@team990.com