Joseph Kaczmarek, The Associated Press

A horse trailer carrying Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones heads east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike yesterday in Bensalem, Pa., under police escort. Smarty Jones departed Philadelphia Park Racetrack for the Belmont Stakes, where the 3-year-old will attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. MORE COVERAGE Record attendance, handle due at Belmont Stakes Interactive Click here for an AP interactive package on the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown, including a review of the post positions for Saturday's race, plus a Belmont photo gallery. The Belmont Stakes What: 136th running of the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of the Triple Crown When: 6:38 p.m. post, Saturday Distance: 11u20442 miles Where: Belmont Park, Elmont, N.Y. TV: WPXI (5 p.m. broadcast time) At stake: Smarty Jones can become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 and can surpass Cigar as the all-time leading money winner.

BELMONT, N.Y. -- While Smarty Jones was motoring smoothly through New Jersey under police escort to Belmont Park yesterday, trainer John Servis was sweating out the final stages of the draw for post positions for the colt's try to sweep racing's Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes.

Happily for Servis, the draw ended just as well as Smarty's van trip from his home base of Philadelphia Park, with Smarty drawing the extreme outside in the field of nine.

The 8-for-8 Pennsylvania-bred hero, bidding to become racing's 12th Triple Crown champion and richest thoroughbred of all time, has raced well from the outside, winning the Arkansas Derby from No. 11 and the Kentucky Derby from the No. 13.

Servis' relief came from pure luck and the fact that the New York Racing Association uses a traditional blind draw for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont.

At the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, trainers and owners have some say in determining their posts by the use of a two-tier system. A lottery gives them the order in which they choose their posts from the slots still open when they select.

At Belmont, the name of the horse and the post are drawn simultaneously, and yesterday seven of the nine total entries were drawn before Smarty. The only posts left to go to him or Master David were the rail and the extreme outside.

Smarty's name was called eighth -- along with the No. 9 post -- and Servis breathed a sigh of relief. NYRA oddsmakers installed him the 2-5 favorite on the morning line, which is the prediction of how bettors will wager Saturday.

"I'm much happier with the nine than the one," Servis said later at another of his series of genial meetings with the media. "Now, I can have a nice run to the first turn. [Jockey] Stewart [Elliott] can get comfortable with him, see where he wants to be."

With the rail, Smarty and Elliott might have been forced into a quicker decision, pushed to the front too fast or, perhaps, pinched back. Servis said he was not surprised to see eight opponents entered, even though until a few days ago it appeared the field would be smaller.

The past three Triple Crown winners faced smaller fields. Secretariat had to defeat just four foes in 1973, Seattle Slew seven in '77 and Affirmed four in '78.

"I expected there to be eight or nine," he said.

Then he talked about several of those horses and why they deserved a shot at the race. He praised the talents of Purge, the 5-1 second choice whom Smarty beat twice at Oaklawn Park in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby, and Rock Hard Ten and Eddington, who ran a distant second and third in the May 15 Preakness.

"I think Purge and Rock Hard Ten and Eddington are amongst the best three 3-year-olds in the country," Servis said.

Rock Hard Ten is 8-1 and Eddington is 10-1 in the morning line.

But, Servis added, "I'm concerned about everybody."

The other everybodies include Master David, 20-1 after a third in the Peter Pan; Birdstone, 15-1, who ran eighth in the Kentucky Derby; Royal Assault, who won the Sir Barton at Pimlico on the Preakness card, at 20-1; and two 50-1 shots, Caiman and Tap Dancer.

"I never saw a horse that can win or place in his stall," said Caiman's trainer, Angel Medina, of his decision to run.

Smarty Jones made it to Belmont Park at 11:55 a.m. after a little more than a two-hour van ride. After being unloaded and put in stall 10 of Barn 5, he pushed his head out over the stall half-door, looking curiously this way and that at his new surroundings.

Servis planned to give him his first gallop over Belmont's 11/2 mile oval at 5:30 a.m. today.