Jones Says He Is Ready to Turn Reins Over to Third Generation

Gary Jones still loves the game. “Greatest game played outdoors,” he was saying recently.

But the game has changed. “It used to be,” he said, “that you had about 10 or 12 bosses. Now, you’ve got about 50. There’s a lot of pressure.”

For Jones, 51, much of that pressure was self-imposed, even though he broke the records set by his father, the legendary Farrell Jones, years ago.

Jones never stopped running, and last week, only days before his retirement would become official, he was still in high gear. Up before dawn, he made the 40-mile drive from Arcadia to Hollywood Park, to supervise that part of his stable. He was back at Santa Anita by 9 a.m., to clock the workout of one of his horses there.

This weekend, Jones will be at Santa Anita to saddle the last of the horses that will run in his name. He’ll try to win Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Barbara Handicap with Auriette, and on Monday, closing day at the track, he’ll saddle Ski Dancer in the $100,000 San Simeon Handicap.

Win or lose, Jones will have had quite a run: more than 1,400 wins; 14 training titles at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar; winner of two Santa Anita Handicaps, two Hollywood Gold Cups, two Oaklawn Park Handicaps, the first Pacific Classic at Del Mar and the Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park.

In 1976, Jones saddled 47 winners at Santa Anita, a record that still stands. He broke Farrell Jones’ record of 44 wins, set five years before. “That’s one of the things I’m most proud of,” Gary Jones said.

In 1974, Farrell Jones suffered a heart attack, and the horses were turned over to his son. Gary Jones suffered a mild heart attack three years ago, but he’s not kidding himself. “The situations are identical,” he said. “My blood pressure’s up. I’ve got some stomach trouble that should be looked into. The time is right.”

There’s another Jones in the wings. Marty Jones, Gary’s 24-year-old son, has been at his father’s side for more than five years. Many of the horses in the Jones barn are being transferred to him. The others will go to Rafael Becerra, who has worked for the family since he started as a 16-year-old groom for Farrell Jones in 1970.

“Marty’s past ready for this,” Gary Jones said. “He’s traveled with the horses, and he knows what it’s all about. He’s got the background, and I think he’s got a better-than-average shot to make it. Joan and I are moving to Del Mar, but I’ll be around. I’ll be looking for horses to send to Marty, for one thing.”

There have been the Best Pals and the Kostromas and the Turkomans and the Lakeways, but there has also been the dark side of racing that has soured Gary Jones. The umbrage still shows from the 30-day suspension he took from the California Horse Racing Board after one of his horses tested positive for an illegal painkiller in 1993. Jones says he spent $70,000 in legal fees to have a subsequent drug charge dismissed.

“About 65% or 70% of the racing board’s positives are false positives,” Jones said. “There’s no logic to it. Why would a guy making $400,000 a year fool around with a race that’s got a $30,000 purse? I saw these drug things kill Laz Barrera. I’m not going to stick around until they kill me.”

Jones’ favorite horse might surprise you. It is Larrikin, who won the Del Mar Derby in 1975. “He might have still been running in my dad’s name,” Jones said. “I claimed him for $25,000, and he was a tough old guy.”

In February 1993, Gary Jones, not long out of intensive care, came to Santa Anita to saddle Marble Maiden, winner of the Buena Vista Handicap. Earlier on the card, he ran a 3-year-old colt, the aptly named Cardiac, and he finished second in a maiden race.

“I would have felt better if Cardiac had won too,” Jones said that day. But what Cardiac did do that day was finish more than 12 lengths ahead of another horse, the badly beaten Cigar, who was making his first start. And that, friends, was the last race that Cigar has lost on dirt.

Horse Racing Notes

In addition to Auriette, top-weighted Wandesta is running in the Santa Barbara, along with stablemate Angel In My Heart, Baby Diamonds, Real Connection and Tabled With Saros. Wandesta, who has been assigned 121 pounds, won’t have to beat Windsharp for a change, since Windsharp is running Sunday in the $400,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap. . . . Next up for Afternoon Deelites is the $400,000 Metropolitan at Belmont Park on May 27. . . . Northern Spur is scheduled to run in the $200,000 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields on April 28. . . . Pike Place Dancer, who beat males in the California Derby on grass, returns to dirt when she runs in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3.

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Triple Crown Ratings

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No. Horse Starts 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Unbridled’s Song 7 4 2 0 $1,223,000 2. Skip Away 10 3 3 2 587,360 3. Roar 9 4 1 2 455,470 4. Cavonnier 13 6 2 2 934,157 5. Alyrob 5 2 0 1 53,000 6. Louis Quatorze 8 3 3 0 291,000 7. Grindstone 5 2 2 0 354,710 8. Editor’s Note 14 3 5 1 455,534 9. Zarb’s Magic 12 5 4 2 481,916 10. In Contention 14 7 4 1 302,111

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Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Racing historian Jim Bolus; Tom Durkin, track announcer in New York and Florida; and Chris Lincoln, racing telecaster for ESPN.