By PAT FORDE
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

Team Smarty Jones, welcome to the longest three weeks of your lives.

You'll be asked to recite your life stories another 200 times each. You'll be asked for tickets, autographs, photographs - just one more minute of your time, every time you turn around.

Most of all, you'll feel compelled to check on a certain 3-year-old colt's health and well being every 30 minutes.

Was that a cough?

Is that a limp?

Is that an uneaten oat in the feed tub? A rash on the back? A dull look in the eyes? Should we phone in a prescription for horsey Prozac?

You get this far this fast, and paranoia comes naturally. Because this is the stage of the dream ride where it always seems to go sour.

The final 150 seconds of the Triple Crown are the longest, hardest and cruelest. Ask Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem and Funny Cide - all Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners in the past seven years who couldn't close the deal in the Belmont. Better yet, given the closed-mouth nature of most thoroughbreds, ask their trainers.

Almost invariably in this recent run of near-misses, the winning trainer has come out of the Preakness saying that was the race he worried about most. Then they learn different in New York. It all falls apart on the most merciless strip of dirt in America.

Silver Charm, Real Quiet and Charismatic were overhauled in the Belmont stretch. War Emblem was cooked by a stumble leaving the starting gate. Funny Cide's tank was empty coming off the far turn.

Year after year, the anticlimaxes have piled high. Yet year after year, the same optimism surges after a sensational performance at Pimlico.

And never more than this year. This year is either the ultimate tease or the ultimate payoff.

Since this recent run of near-misses began, the story never has been more compelling: the old owner in the wheelchair with the ever-present oxygen tank, the off-Broadway trainer and jockey in their first Triple Crown, the horse who nearly killed himself as a 2-year-old - it's fairy-tale stuff.

And the animal never has been more overpowering: Smarty Jones' margin of victory was a record. He's smashed every horse that can be considered a serious Belmont threat.

None of the other recent Triple Crown aspirants has made your neck hair stand up like Smarty Jones did Saturday. As Imperialism jockey Kent Desormeaux said after the Preakness, the only thing that seems capable of beating Smarty Jones is himself.

Which will spike the anxiety over these three weeks. The worry is less about the competition than about maintaining the champ's equine equilibrium.

So many things can go wrong with these creatures, especially the brittle breed of today. Compared with many members of his generation, Smarty Jones is an absolute war horse: eight starts and eight wins, routinely brilliant works, never seems to have a bad day. He's as reliable as Brett Favre in the starting lineup for the Green Bay Packers.

But the Belmont is the ultimate test of hardiness, and it's been a grueling campaign for the Smartster. He hasn't gone longer than three weeks without a race since February. The question is whether he has one more inspiring effort in him before a well-earned rest.

The minutes will drag and the hours will creep between now and post time on June 5. As Team Smarty Jones will discover, it's a long grind just getting to the cruelest 150 seconds in racing.