John Servis never imagined he'd train a horse like Smarty Jones. But it happened. He certainly never imagined he'd get another like him. But it could happen again.

Is Rockport Harbor the next Smarty Jones? Probably not. Horses like the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner don't come around that often. But Servis has another prospect that is, for obvious reasons, evoking memories of a special horse and a special time.

Just 9 ½ months after Smarty Jones won his debut at Philadelphia Park by 7 3/4 lengths, Rockport Harbor romped in a Sept. 12 Philly maiden race by 8 3/4 lengths. Smarty Jones made his next appearance in a Pennsylvania-bred stakes race at Philly Park, winning easily. Rockport Harbor made his second lifetime start Tuesday at the same track, winning in the same effortless fashion. Like Smarty Jones, his jockey is Stewart Elliott. His owner, Rick Porter. is a car dealer from Delaware. Smarty Jones' owner, Roy Chapman, is a car dealer from Philadelphia.

Smarty II?

"I can't imagine it happening again," Porter said. "But I keep hanging on to that thought. Maybe it will be case of deja vu. But how could it happen again? It would be very unusual. You'd have to get huge odds on it happening again."

Naturally, Servis is a bit reluctant to mention Rockport Harbor in the same breath as Smarty Jones.

"He's a pretty good colt," he said. "But it's way to early to make that comparison."

Fair enough. But Servis isn't afraid to admit that Rockport Harbor has a ton of potential. He has already mapped out a schedule for him with the 2005 Kentucky Derby in mind. He is set to make his next start in the Nov. 2 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct, which will serve as a prep for the Nov. 22 Remsen, also at Aqueduct. From there, Servis hopes to take the same Arkansas route to the Kentucky Derby that Smarty Jones traveled.

"Am I ready for this again?" Servis said. "Hell yes. The good thing with Smarty is that we got to fly under the radar until Derby time. Because of Smarty, people are jumping on this horse real quick."

The one thing this is not is another underdog story with a bunch of fascinating subplots. Rockport Harbor never fractured his skull in the starting gate, his owner isn't suffering from emphysema and he wasn't previously trained by someone who was subsequently murdered.

Rockport Harbor, by Unbridled's Song out of a Copelan mare, is impeccably bred and cost $470,000 at the 2003 September yearling sales at Keeneland. While the Chapmans never campaigned a top stakes horse until Smarty Jones came along, Porter has had a Grade I winner in Jostle. This is a case of an owner spending a lot of money on a well-bred horse and getting what he paid for.

"There was a lot more to Smarty Jones' story," Porter said. "Some unfortunate things happened to him. This is a story of an owner who got into the racing business some 20 years ago. We started out in the claiming game and moved up from there. We've been buying yearling and 2-year-olds and, hopefully, we got ourselves a good one."

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One can hardly blame Barry Schwartz for resigning his post as the CEO of the New York Racing Association. It's an unpaid position and Schwartz never could have imagined the headaches that he was about to face when he signed on four years ago. With all of NYRA's legal problems, which resulted from incidents that took place before he got there, he had to guide NYRA through turbulent times that were clearly taxing on him personally.

"It's time for me to go," he said. "I've been doing this for four years. It's gotten to very time-consuming, very grueling, and it's just time for a change for me in my life."

Still, it's a shame he can't stick around a while longer. Schwartz was the most fan-friendly executive in racing. Here was a guy who got it: the fans matter. He was responsible for lowering the takeout and putting tens of millions of extra dollars back into the pockets of his players. He let his customers decide issues like whether or not there should be color-coded saddle clothes by conducting on-line polls on the NYRA website. He changed the culture at NYRA, which had a long history of ignoring the people who make the game go, the ones betting their money.

It has been reported that former Daily Racing Form CEO Charles Hayward will replace Schwartz. Hayward is an excellent choice. It's just that he has awful big shoes to fill.