In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Parx Racing did not schedule the event. Originally the distance of the event was set as 1 mile and 70 yards but was extended in 2016 to the current distance of 1 + 1⁄ 16 miles. The event is named in honor of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, and hometown Pennsylvania hero Smarty Jones.
The race was inaugurated in 2010 with an attractive purse offered of $300,000 as a preparatory race for the Grade I Pennsylvania Derby where the winner was given automatic entry. The event currently carries a purse of $300,000. The Smarty Jones Stakes is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for three years olds, over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt track held annually in early September at Parx Casino and Racing racetrack in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. with allowances & 2 lbs added for stakes winnersįirst three finishers received automatic entry to Grade I Pennsylvania Derby Horse race Smarty Jones Stakes Grade III raceġ24 lbs.
