On Closing Day, Jones Makes Final Trip to Winner’s Circle

Leaving a winner’s circle for the 1,457th time, trainer Gary Jones turned right, into the tunnel that leads away from the racetrack.

“Hey, Gary,” Mike Smith shouted from an aisle overlooking the tunnel. “All those [jockeys] pulled [their horses] up, you know.”

Jones looked up, waved to Smith and grinned. They had worked together for 10 years, Jones as the boss and Smith as the assistant, before Smith went out on his own in 1989.

With a heart attack behind him, the 51-year-old Jones has listened to his doctors and decided to retire. So Monday at Santa Anita, the horse opera turned into a soap opera as Ski Dancer, a 4-year-old filly, beat five males in the $104,200 San Simeon Handicap, sending her trainer off into the sunset happy.

When Gary Stevens got off Ski Dancer and hugged Jones, the trainer broke into tears. Dozens of fans from Santa Anita’s closing-day crowd ringed the winner’s circle and applauded as Jones posed for his final photo. Chris McCarron, who had ridden Boulderdash Bay to third place, was on the other side, leaving the track, and he clapped too.

“I never thought I would get this way, but I did,” the red-eyed Jones said. “I could tell from talking to Gary in the paddock that I was going to get the ride of a lifetime. He rode her like it was the Kentucky Derby. You would have thought that it was his last race too.”

Ski Dancer gave Jones his 72nd stakes victory at Santa Anita, a total surpassed only by Charlie Whittingham, Wayne Lukas and Ron McAnally. Overall, Jones’ horses earned $51.4 million. The first of the 7,860 that he ran, King Wako, won at Santa Anita on opening day, the day after Christmas, in 1975.

“Working for Gary was like working for Bobby Knight,” said Smith, a collegiate basketball player at Utah State before he turned to racing. “You learned a lot, and we had a lot of fun too. He was the greatest guy in the world to work for.”

With the cooperation of his owners, Jones will turn over his horses to his son, Marty, and Rafael Becerra, his long-time assistant.

“Don’t worry about those guys,” Jones said. “They’ll do better than I did.”

Jones thanked Jeff and Sandy Kallenberg, the owners of Ski Dancer, for agreeing to run their filly against males. In her previous start, Ski Dancer won the Las Cienegas Handicap, another 6 1/2-furlong race on grass.

“[Monday’s race] couldn’t have been neater,” Stevens said. “You hope that it will happen, but you’re never sure. You kind of figure something will go wrong in a situation like that. But Gary’s last couple of weeks--well, he could do no wrong. He had this filly right today, and she just showed a lot of gameness.”

Ski Dancer, the second betting choice, beat Daggett Peak by three-quarters of a length.

Corey Nakatani finished fourth astride the 3-2 favorite, Chilly Billy, but he still won the 87-day meet’s riding title, beating out Alex Solis, 75-74, with Stevens finishing third with 68 wins.

Nakatani, in earning his first Santa Anita title, had an extraordinary season, winning at a 20% clip while riding fewer horses than most of the leading riders because he served 20 days in stewards’ suspensions. Stevens was the stakes leader with 14 victories, followed by McCarron with 12 and Nakatani with 11.

Bill Spawr didn’t saddle any winners on closing day, but he had already clinched his second Santa Anita training title. Spawr, who was also the meet leader in 1991, beat out Richard Mandella, 28-27. Wally Dollase and Bobby Frankel each ran eight stakes winners, two more than Mandella and Jones, who had six apiece.

Santa Anita’s average daily handle of $11.7 million represented a gain of almost 4% over last season. On-track, the average was down 3.6%. On-track attendance dropped 5.3%, to 12,321 a day, and overall crowds were off about 5%.

Santa Anita became the first North American track to exceed the $1-billion mark in total betting for one meet, but Cliff Goodrich, the track president, put that accomplishment in perspective.

“We still have much work to do,” he said. “We do not take the reduction in our on-track figures lightly. Although this is a clear trend in American racing, we feel strongly that it can be turned around.”

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Horse Racing Notes

Dr. Caton, who had been a probable for the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on Saturday, has undergone surgery for an entrapped epiglottis. Dr. Caton wasn’t scheduled to run in the Kentucky Derby on May 4, but had been a possibility for the Preakness at Pimlico on May 18. . . . Trainer Bob Baffert is going to run Semoran in the Derby, despite a sixth-place finish in the Blue Grass. “He just wasn’t himself,” Baffert said. “I’m going to throw that race out.” The previous race, Semoran won the Remington Park Derby. Baffert’s other Derby horse is Cavonnier, winner of the Santa Anita Derby. . . . With Chris McCarron deciding to ride Semoran in the Kentucky Derby, the mount on trainer Nick Zito’s Louis Quatorze goes to Chris Antley. With Antley aboard, Zito’s Go For Gin won the Derby in 1991. . . . Hollywood Park’s 70-day meet opens Friday night. . . . Times handicapper Bob Mieszerski led all newspaper selectors at the Santa Anita meeting. Mieszerski finished the 87-day season with 261 winners, five more than his nearest pursuer, syndicated handicapper Bob Ike. In The Times’ consensus rankings, the Racing Form was second to Mieszerski with 256 winners, Mike Wyma was third at 211 and Fred Robledo fourth with 209. Money returned on $1,570, based on $2 bets: Wyma $1,555.60, Mieszerski $1,426.60, Racing Form $1,267.60, Robledo 1,246.30. Consensus picks: 256 winners, $1,321.60.